Three Year Legacy
by Byakusharinnegan
Summary: Lisanna's back from Edolas, and Lucy's feeling neglected. She snaps, and escapes to where her mother once live. After three years, she's back, and ready to show the world that she's risen from the ashes of her past and emerged strong.
1. Cause and Effect

**This is the Fairy Tail/Naruto crossover, Three Year Legacy (note that I changed the title) and brought to you by Byakusharinnegan, Nachi, and their friend who refuses to give a name but is used for getting exclusive interviews when the people we wish to interview do not cooperate. We also have friend codenamed Owl with us. **

**I would also like to say that this is a I-took-ideas-from-that-story sort of story to Return of the Yellow Flash since I really can't make up an excuse for Dragon and Phoenix summoning contracts existing. Nor can I explain about the sudden battle idea from Nachi. And since this is a 3 way written story and I'm the only one with a fanfiction account, I incorporate Nachi and Owl's idea in the story. **

**None of us own Naruto or Fairy Tail. If we did, then things would be a _lot_ more different than what you see. For example, Erza and Jellal would get together. And Itachi would never die. **

**For the story now begins!**

**Once upon a time, in a faraway land where mages existed...**

* * *

A day in Fairy Tail was as normal as any day. Lucy, however, was out on a mission by herself, unlike most times where she paired up with Natsu. Natsu was in an argument with Gray over something about whose scoop of ice cream was bigger.

"Freezing bastard!"

"Flame brain!"

"Ice mice!"

"_Ice_ _mice?_" Gray asked in disbelief.

Natsu shrugged and ignored his previous pathetic insult. "Ice princess!"

"Nincompoop!"

Natsu stared. "What does nincompoop mean?"

Gray snorted and moved off. "Figure it out yourself."

Natsu frowned and was lost in thought. "Hmmm..."

Away across the guild, Lisanna was staring dreamily at Natsu and not at all paying attention to Levi's rant about how some books on grammar were actually grammatically incorrect and therefore would be teaching incorrect grammar and yada yada yada...

"-and so if it says I is good, that's not correct grammar and-huh? Lisanna? What are you doing?" Levi asked.

Lisanna looked at Levi with a slight blush. "I'm going to do it." She moved off towards Natsu, who still did not find "nincompoop" in his "Universal Book of Gray's Insults". He was also ignoring the dictionary sitting on the counter.

"Natsu...Ireallyreallylikeyouanddoyou likeme?..." Lisanna managed out to Natsu.

The whole guild stared.

"N-natsu?"

Natsu looked up. "Hm?"

"Will you answer my question?"

Now, my friends, Natsu had learned that when a female asked him a question, it was usually asking if he agreed with said female. Disagreeing was extremely painful and should never be trifled with unless you had a death wish or was a masochist.

Natsu grinned. "The answer is yes! Sure! Of course! Why no-mmph!" Lisanna had just kissed him.

And then the door flew open to admit no other than Fairy Tail's resident Celestial Spirit Mage, Lucy Heartfilia.

Uh oh.

Lucy stared at the kissing couple for a few seconds before abruptly turning and storming out, slamming the door with a crash worthy of Erza.

Natsu immediately got up and ran after her. "Oi! Lucy! Lucy, wait up!"

Lucy whirled around. "Don't touch me!" She was near tears now.

Natsu stared. "Lucy, what's wro-"

SLAP!

Lucy was now crying. "We spent all that time together, and now you just go and act like I never existed and you pretend nothing's wrong! I HATE YOU!" She stormed off, crying.

Natsu stared. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Aye." Happy flew over.

"Happy! Did I do something wrong?"

"Aye. She's probably feeling neglected."

"Okaaay...hey, Happy. Do you know what nincompoop means?"

"No."

"Oh, alright then, do you think that-"

"NATSU YOU FREAKING IDIOT!" Erza had arrived on the scene, along with a rather dangerous looking stick, which had just been used on the unfortunate Natsu.

"_Erza_!" Natsu whined, rubbing his head. "What did you-"

He was silenced by Erza's killing intent.

Erza stared down at Natsu. "You do not understand the female sex, do you?"

"Huh?"

"You, who have been Lucy's best friend in Fairy Tail for at least 7 freakin' years, now has been neglecting her completely for the past 2 months since Lisanna's returned, and is pretending that nothing has changed so-"

Natsu stared in openmouthed horror as Erza's Giant Stick of Unimaginable Doom descended on his poor, abused-and-about-to-be-abused-again-and-again head.

"-YOU SHALL PAY."

* * *

While Erza was busy distributing 2 months worth of bad Karma onto Natsu, Lucy was in her bedroom and digging around in her "Mom Box". This box contained various objects that symbolized her mother, including a weird scroll that had a note to her and drawings of hands in various positions.

The note said:

_Dear Lucy:_

_I should probably tell you now, that while I was a Celestial Spirit Mage, I wasn't a mage at all before. I am a member of the Shokan clan of the Land of Shinobi, a universe different from us in many ways. I won't go into the details, but the reason I could become a Mage was because the Shokan clan was given the ability to summon any animal. Cats, toads, horses, and even dragons were not beyond our ability, but we could not use the Sage Mode of the summonings unless we had a contract with them. Now before you ask about Sage Mode, I should probably tell you that that long list of hand drawings are the necessary seals to transport yourself to the Elemental Countries. Please make sure that you use it responsibly and that you tell your friends and family that you are leaving._

_Love,_

_Your Mother, Layla Shokan Heartfilia_

_P.S. It would do you good to NOT engage in battle. I assure you, the ninja could kill you faster than you could blink._

Lucy stared at the long list of 153 hand drawings. SHe took a deep breath.

"Okay, let's do this."

* * *

Erza was now finished with her revenge on behalf of Lucy when she saw said girl run towards the nearby park clutching a scroll.

"Lucy!" she called, but the look Lucy gave her was so full of hatred and hurt that she looked like a completely different person. Erza ran after her, still calling her name.

When she finally caught up to Lucy (for someone running in high heels, Lucy ran pretty fast), it was to the sight of Lucy finishing a set of hand positions before abruptly vanishing.

"Lucy?" asked Erza, but she was gone, with the scroll lying on the ground.

_Master will want to see this,_ Erza thought before turning around and hurrying back towards Fairy Tail.

* * *

Master Makarov was happily falling into a dream consisting of rather...perverted tendencies when Erza charged in, calling out a "MASTER!" at the top of her voice. Makarov was immediately jolted out of his wonderful (for him) dream and pulled back into a harsh reality consisting of a lot of property damage.

"Yes, Erza?"

"You see, this morning, Natsu and Gray were..."

*ABOUT 5 MINUTES LATER*

"-and so, only this scroll was left." Erza handed the scroll over to Makarov.

Makarov's eyes widened. "T-This c-can't be...I thought it was just a myth..."

"A myth, Master?"

Makarov nodded. "It's said that there were people would had no qualms about killing. They had a special energy source like our magic, except it was not just limited to fire, or wind. They could preform all sort of magic and were skilled with weapons and hand-to-hand fighting. Some had the strange ability to cause strange illusions, and still others had varying fighting styles. I thought they never existed, but...this is proof."

Erza nodded quietly. "But Master, Lucy used it-"

Makarov sighed. "Then Lucy has the blood of the shinobi in her, and she was never a full-fledged mage in the first place. But from what I can see, this is a very powerful magic. But I do not think Lucy would have done this unless she was provoked. Do you know what may have happened?"

Erza proceedeed to glare menacingly at Natsu, who immediately cowered in fear of the GSoUD (Giant Stick of Uninmaginable Doom) that she was holding in one hand.

Makarov sweat-dropped. "I see it has something to do with Natsu..."

"OF COURSE IT DID." Erza's voice boomed over the silent crowd, directing her killing intent at Natsu.

"I don't suppose you'll forgive him?" tried Makarov.

"LIKE HELL I WILL."

"Oh dear, this isn't going so well..." muttered Makarov.

* * *

_Somewhere in Konoha..._

Kiba was just ready to charge at Shino when a blond, busty girl dropped out of nowhere and landed unceremoniously on Shino.

Kiba stared. Hinata and Kurenai both stared.

And for the first time, Shino cursed. Loudly.

* * *

Tsunade stared in amusement at the girl who had managed to make Shino curse. The blond girl was struggling and whining and yelling at the two ANBU holding her. Problem was, ANBU were trained for this sort of thing and made no attempt to comfort the girl. If anything, they gave her menacing mask stares that would trump Erza's stare.

"I am Senju Tsunade of the Sannin and Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato. And who may you be?"

The girl, now trembling, looked up. "I'm Lucy, Lucy Heartfilia, and my mother left me a scroll and she said her given name was Shokan and please don't kill me!"

Tsunade sighed. "Don't worry, we won't kill you."

"Really?"

"Yes. We might torture you mentally and physically up to the point where you wished you were dead, but killing you right now? No. We don't do that over here."

Lucy trembled and burst into tears. "But I'm just a harmless little girl!"

"And little girls can be dangerous spies." Tsunade nodded to the guards. "Place her into a cell and have _him_ go into her minds. _She_ might be needed as well."

**A/N: _him_ refers to Yamanaka Inoichi and _She_ refers to Mitarashi Anko. Tsunade is not using their actual names for security reasons.**

Lucy protested again, but Naruto strode over to her and told the ANBU to let her go. Lucy dropped to the floor, and looked up ready to say thank you, but Naruto stuck a piece of paper to her forehead and Lucy couldn't talk or move at all. Naruto then nodded to the ANBU, who hoisted Lucy up and continued off to T&I.

* * *

_And somewhere at Fairy Tail..._

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Natsu screamed as a good chunk of the female population of Fairy Tail (excluding Lisanna) chased him, all holding GSoUDs and ready to beat the hell out of him.

Levi was the best so far, having hit Natsu five times.

"YOU'LL PAY FOR MAKING LU-CHAN LEAVE!" she yelled, bringing the GSoUD onto Natsu's head.

* * *

"And she is telling the truth." finished Inoichi.

Tsunade nodded. "So she is of the Shokan clan...I thought they had died out."

"Hokage-sama, will Shokan-san be learning the shinobi arts?"

"I suppose so."

"But, Hokage-sama, she is severely behind."

Tsunade smiled. "That is where Gai comes in. He's off to meet her already."

"Hokage-sama, are you sure that's sane..."

"Ah, don't worry. We've all experienced Gai."

* * *

Lucy frowned.

"I'm sure that this 'Maito Gai' should be here soo-"

"YOSH!" Gai leapt in. "Are you Lucy Shokan?"

"Y-yes," squeaked Lucy, mentally scarred at Gai's shiny bowl cut, bushy eyebrows, and green spandex suit.

"GOOD! Now, before you start, you will have to wear this." Gai held up a spandex suit.

Lucy fainted away.

* * *

_In Fairy Tail..._

"Where is Natsu-kun?" asked Lisanna.

Erza, eating cake, mumbled a "Hms hn huh hmfmmy."

Mirajane smiled. "He's in the infirmary."

"Eh? Why?"

"He has a severe concussion..."

* * *

**NOW...CUE TIME SKIP OF THREE YEARS! (Yes, three years.)**

* * *

"It's time to go." a figure in a dark cloak smiled as the wind blew through, revealing blond hair.

An orange-haired figure stood quietly with a red-haired young man in a strange metal contraption next to him.

"The Akatsuki are ready." was all he said as 14 figures silently slid into place behind him.

Another figure walked up, his hood down to reveal whiskered cheeks.

"Gaara's not coming," he said. "He has to watch over Suna."

A pink haired figure walked up next to him. "Tsunade-shishou's staying to watch over Konoha as well."

"All together, we have...13 people coming, not including the Akatsuki."

"Right." The figure stood up. "Let's go, everyone."

A bright portal lit up the sky and the 19 figures disappeared.

* * *

The 19 figures landed in a deserted alleyway of Magnolia. They moved quickly, and with a purpose, towards the tall, towering cliff. One briefly concentrated, and thousands of copies of that person appeared.

By the time dawn broke, a large, formidable building that could only be described as a fortress sat on the hill. A large banner was hung over the door, with the symbol of a phoenix rising from the ashes.

As people gradually became curious, they placed jobs for this new guild. More and more people, encouraged by the flawless record of jobs finished, gradually came to place requests. The silver haired, one-eyed, orange-book-reading guild master welcomed each of them with a eye-smile and a nod. The members, though just 19, were able to accomplish nearly every job. They did what was instructed of them, nothing more. The one job they would not take were the jobs that were requested by those who wished to seek selfish gain. They somehow knew the exact personality of the client no matter what facade was put up, and those who fought them and survived described them as "people who have grown up to fast".

The other guild, Fairy Tail, still had job requests, but those were mainly the jobs that the new guild has refused. They still managed well, but people were now wondering if the new guild was really the best guild, or was Fairy Tail still king? There would be only one way to decide:

The Great Magic Games. Only this time, Fairy Tail would not be fighting for its place as strongest guild only. It would be fighting to survive.

And the new guild's name?

Phoenix Reborn. A fitting name with a fitting motto:

You can't beat us. We'll always rise from the ashes and live again.

* * *

**That is the end of chapter 1, and a pretty good chapter one (although rather short) I think it is. **

**Please review!**

**Byaku~**

**Nachi**

**Owl**

**In the next chapter, we will have some wonderful Fairy Tail bonding time...and reflecting-on-the-past time. And a cover blown.**


	2. Careful!

**This is chapter 2! I am hyper! I should eat less candy corn...yes, that's from Halloween.**

**How many people have figured out the guild master of Phoenix Reborn? If you haven't, then...well...you seriously need to reread/rewatch Naruto. **

**I suddenly have to urge to make fillers to make this story longer...NO! Resist the urge! Resist it! Think about all the readers who hate fillers! Resist the urge! Go and attempt to choke a Geometry textbook instead!**

***cough cough* er, moving on to the story!**

**Owl, Nachi, and I would like to say that it takes quite a bit of time to post updates as we have to discuss this during school. We only have lunch together, soo...it takes time. Plus, it's winter break...**

* * *

Deidara had decided that currently, it was extremely annoying with Sasuke trying to Uchiha Death Glare him to, well, death. Of course, it didn't affect Danna because Danna was a puppet and therefore extremely insensitive.

"Hey, Sasori-no-danna."

"What?"

"Why is Itachi's brother trying to Uchiha Death Glare me to death, uhn?"

"Why don't you go ask him yourself?"

"Because he's in the separate building, uhn. And he has the window open, uhn."

"Then throw a rock at him."

Surprisingly, Deidara did follow Sasori's advice. Which is why Sasuke was currently lying in a pool of blood with a rock imbedded in his forehead. Itachi, who had been visiting Kakashi, glancing down and said,

"Foolish little brother, you should have seen that rock."

* * *

Natsu strode down the street, carrying a message from Makarov to Kakashi for something called "Icha Icha". He had no idea what it was, but by Makarov's expression when he read it, it looked funny. Then his nose caught a scent.

A _very_ familiar scent.

"LUCY!" Natsu dashed towards the blond girl who was wearing a dark cloak and carrying a large back. The girl turned to face him, but with green eyes instead of brown.

Natsu stopped short. "Ah, sorry. I thought you were someone else."

"As in Lucy?"

"Yeah."

The girl suddenly showed interest. "You mean Lucy Heartfilia?"

"You know here?"

"I've heard of her. I think she's part of Phoenix, I'm not sure..."

"Yeah, but you see, you smell like Lucy. Are you Lucy?"

"No. I'm...Layla." Lucy was annoyed that she used her mother's name, but she couldn't change it now...

"Oh. Then, have you, er, seen Lucy? Because Master wants to speak with her, and-"

"Yes, I have seen Lucy. No, she will not speak to this Master of yours. Lucy hates Fairy Tail. Goodbye." Layla spun on her heel and stalked off.

Natsu stared after her before continuing on to Phoenix Reborn. If he hurried, he could get the "Icha Icha" and read it on the way back.

* * *

Lucy ran up the stone steps that led to the 4th back entrance of Phoenix Reborn. Being the overly cautious ninjas they were, Kakashi had constructed no less than 63 different entrances and exits, along glass-less windows for easy escape. However, some haters would throw trash into the guild. The trash was immediately returned, and followed by tiny fireballs from the larger building and, for the smaller building, no less than a bunch of clay flying objects that exploded, needles filled with poison, black fireballs (that wouldn't be put out with water), a gigantic red three-bladed scythe, a creepy disembodied hand, black rods, paper knives (that were worse than regular knives), and miniature water sharks. If the attacks persisted, a hyperactive, orange-masked man would be sent to annoy the hater(s) to death.

Phoenix Reborn consisted of two buildings - the main one and the special one. The main building took all jobs, but the special one mainly specialized in high danger missions, such as fighting yetis, high-profile assassinations and such. You would apply at the main building, and if the guild master said so, the order would be sent to the special building. The special building was named Red Dawn.

Another thing about the guild was that each member had two, or sometimes three guild stamps - the mark of the main guild (a phoenix rising) and then their own personal stamp. Members of the Red Dawn also had a rising sun as a separate stamp.

However, the thing people found most strange was that the inside of the room was always smaller than the outside. There was only a square hole on the ceiling. Some of the more observant ones would say that the members slept in the room about it, but they could never explain how they managed to get into there.

Well, good for them. If anyone actually found out, they would disappear.

* * *

"Oi!"

Kakashi looked up to see Natsu. _Oh. It's pink head. What does he want now?_

You, see, throughout the months, Natsu had been a frequent visitor. First, He was sent on a "welcoming mission" (which actually resulted in him telling the whole guild that Fairy Tail was stronger than they ever would be) that caused Kakashi to KO him in 5 seconds before picking him up and walking over to Fairy Tail himself to say hello.

Once there, Kakashi skillfully (and annoyingly) ignored all yells, insults, questions, and whatever else was directed at him. Then, Makarov had walked up to him and started reading Icha Icha over his shoulder.

After that, the two guild leaders had become great friends, which soon turned into a quiet rivalry. And currently, Kakashi was tied with Makarov. Fairy Tail received jobs from the people who had lived there for a long time and were unwilling to change, while Phoenix Tail had customers that did not know much about Magnolia's two guilds.

"Hello, Natsu-kun. How are you today?"

"Fine. Makarov-jiji wants...Icha Icha Playground."

"Ah! Here you go."

"Thanks!"

Natsu ran off to a safe distance before he flipped to the first page.

"NO! MY INNOCENCE HAS BEEN RUINED!"

* * *

"Itachi-san."

"What?"

"Look what I found!" Kisame held out a flyer for the Grand Magic Games.

Itachi slowly read it over.

"So, Itachi-san, what do you think?"

"Kisame."

"Yes?"

"We are going to win this."

"Ah, but Itachi-san, we have to be in groups of five."

"What are you two looking at?"

"Ah, Leader-sama. Look at this!" Kisame said, eagerly holding out the flyer.

"Hm...Mmhm..." Leader looked up. "We're sending...let's see...Kakuzu, Hidan, you, Itachi...and Tobi."

"Why Tobi, uhn?" asked Deidara as he walked over, the rest following him.

"Well," said Pein, "Itachi has his Mangekyou Sharingan, Kisame had a lot of chakra, you have to kill Kakuzu five times to fully kill him, you can't kill Hidan, and I have not yet seen anyone be able to hurt Tobi except Tobi himself yet."

Sadly, it was true. Even Deidara's atomic bomb did not work.

* * *

"Kakashi-sensei! Kakashi-sensei! Look at this! Can I go?"

"Geez, Naruto. Let me see." Kakashi's eye scanned the flyer. "Ok, you can go."

"What is the dobe doing?"

"Well, teme, this 'dobe' is going to the Grand Magic Games and the 'teme' is not!"

"Actually, Naruto, Sasuke is coming too. So are Sakura and Hinata. I suppose Lucy should come along too?" he asked, glancing at Lucy.

"Fine." said Lucy as she stood up, green-contact-lensed eyes trying to Uchiha Death Glare Kakashi to death (it didn't work). "I'll come. But the name's Layla, now."

"Ok, Lucy!"

"...I hate you."

* * *

"Natsu, Erza, Gray, Juvia, and Gajeel. You're going to the Grand Magic Games." said Makarov. He pounded the table with his fist. "And you will kick Phoenix Reborn's ass!"

"Hell yeah!"

* * *

_Later..._

"Kakashi! I want to make a bet!" shouted Makarov.

Kakashi looked up. "Oh?"

"Yes. If we win, I get all your Icha Icha books."

"And if I win?"

"...I'll admit that your guild is superior to mine."

Kakashi shrugged. He didn't really care. After all, Makarov would never find the _limited editions_, so he was safe.

"Sure."

"(*o*)!" Makarov had surprised face, which changed to a happy face, which changed to a freaky pedophile face.

"Mark my words, scarecrow. We're gonna win."

"I'll see you at the trophy, Makarov!" came the infuriating reply.

* * *

_And at the Tournament (gosh this is just the second chapter!)..._

"And welcoming the newcomers of Magnolia...Phoenix Reborn! They also have a second group competing, known as Red Dawn!"

Very few people, if any, clapped. No one knew this guild very well, and very few placed any hope in them.

"So," said Mato, completely oblivious to the silence, "As the honor of a new guild joining, we will have a quick...capture the flag kind of battle, so to speak."

The pumpkin continued, "It will be teams against teams, no hold barred magic, and...you guard this." He held up a bright shiny ball thing that could probably be seen from a mile away."

"The game ends when the ball is captured. Teams can go all over the field, but you cannot throw the ball. Or drop it. Or magic it away. Or let it leave your hands!"

"We take no responsibility for any injured, maimed, poisoned, limb-severed, mentally scarred, physically scarred, killed, blown up, stabbed, or any sort of harm done."

"First match...Red Dawn versus...Lamia Scale!"

It would be the understatement of the century to say that the teams were unfocused.

At some point in the game, Tobi and Toby (wait...their names are similar...) somehow went off to discuss Pokemon, so the game continued without them. Yuka was constantly distracted by Hidan screaming at Kakuzu about how his eyebrows looked like that "(omitted) green spandex (omitted) wearing (omitted)" and Kakuzu screaming back at Hidan to just shut up. Then Chelia jumped in talking about love, and soon they were involved in an argument about "love", "green spandex", "shutting up", and "thick eyebrows and how they are not weird". At the same time, they were going back and forth blocking each other from getting past.

So now, there was Jura, Itachi, Kisame, and Lyon. Their conversation went something like this:

"So...mind telling us a bit about yourselves?" asked Jura.

Kisame scratched his head, reminding the others vaguely of a confused monkey. "Er...like what?"

"Skills, personal background..."

"Oh. My name is Hoshigaki Kisame! When I was in ninja academy, I killed 20 of my classmates! I killed on the the Seven Shinobi Swordsman of the Mist and got Samehada. I specialize in water jutsu...taijutsus...anything involving a good chunk of chakra...and maybe a few genjutsus...and we know you already, so no need to explain yourself."

Jura nodded, clearly not understand anything, but filing it away for sifting though later.

"And you, mister..."

"...Uchiha Itachi."

"Nice to meet you. What has your life been like?"

"..." Itachi turned away.

Kisame grinned. "Sorry, Itachi-san's not very social. Scratch that, he's not social AT ALL. Uchiha Itachi is a genius. He graduated from the Academy at 8 as opposed to the normal 13, and became an ANBU (that's the elite forces) at 13. Oh, and he also killed his entire clan in a night. I think there were, like, 472 people? Either way, he didn't spare anyone, from the oldest elder to the newborn children. But he did save his little brother...and his little brother is trying to kill him as many times as he can. See! There's Sasuke, Itachi's little brother."

Jura followed Kisame's finger to a raven-haired, duck-butt-haired young man who seemed to be extremely irritated by the blond male next to him.

Then he turned to Itachi.

Then he said, "They don't look that much like brothers..."

"Yeah, but then again, all Uchihas looked something like that."

"I see..."

* * *

"HEY! Why aren't they fighting?"

"Patience, Naruto," said Kakashi. "They are evaluating their opponents."

"Why don't we just charge in like the courageous ninjas we are?" Naruto thought he heard Sasuke go "coughidiotcough" but he ignored it.

"Naruto...I'll let you figure that out yourself."

* * *

"Um...Jura-san?"

"Yes, Kisame-san?" Jurn looked up from his blissful Icha Icha Paradise.

"Don't you think I should probably tell you that Itachi-san had your ball and is currently breathing fireballs at your spiky haired partner and oh I think Itachi crossed the li-"

"AND THE WINNER IS RED DAWN! WOW THAT WAS A LONG MATCH!" boomed the voice of the pumpkin.

Itachi stared at the shiny ball. It was yellow and glittery. He raised it high and smashed it down on the ground.

A pack of pocky fell out.

Itachi picked up the pocky and strode out cooly. His intuition had been followed.

Seeing this, Hidan went over to their ball and cracked it.

A giant sock flew out.

Surprisingly enough, Hidan like it, as he claimed that "Jashin Claus would give me more presents."

* * *

"NEXT MATCH: MERMAID HEEL VERSUS...QUATRO CEREBRUS!"

Cheering tore across the field.

* * *

**Alrighty, second chapter down!**

**Next is the third chapter...maybe in January something...**

**Merry Christmas!**

**Byaku~**

**Nachi**

**Owl**


	3. End of the Honorary Games

**This is the third chapter! In this chapter, we will finish up the Honorary Games and go to the actual battles! We have not yet decided who ought to compete for that water ball thing...while Kisame would be highly amusing, it would be rather disturbing to see him in that ball with all the girls...**

**It's a new year, everyone, and the world has not ended. Of course it wouldn't. There are so many unaccomplished things in the world...such as the fact that Neji has not come back to life yet. **

**Random Question:****Why is it, that in a lot of animes and mangas, there's always a guy (s) with long hair?**

**Oh yes, and try to find the Rave Master reference in this chapter!**

**For Fairy Tail, their tea****m is now composed of:**

**Erza, Gray, Natsu, Lax****us, and Gajeel.**

* * *

The battle between Mermaid Heel and Quatro Cerebrus was quick and brutal.

Semmes and Nobarly were thrown off the field (literally) by Kagura, who, supported by Risley and Milliana, proceeded to (literally again) beat the living hell out of the remaining guild members of Quatro Cerebrus.

While they were occupied in a battle involving giant plants, an extreme abundance of tears, a human-sized drill, and magical ropes. Arania was left to defend their shiny pink ball while Beth snuck over the steal the shiny green one. Semmes and Nobarly, unfortunately, could not warn them as they had hit the cement ground headfirst and were therefore unconscious.

"VICTORY TO MERMAID HEEL!"

Once walking off the field, Beth and Arania broke both the balls to reveal:

A enormous, larger-than-life lollipop and a funny penguin thing that said "Poyo" whenever you squeezed it.

Kagura's eye twitched.

* * *

It was then that Mato discovered a slight problem.

The teams left were:

Sabertooth, Fairy Tail, Phoenix Reborn, Raven Tail, and Blue Pegasus.

That was five teams.

Five was an odd number.

And Mato quickly calculated an evil plan.

"ALRIGHT EVERYONE! NEXT SHALL BE SABERTOOTH VERSUS RAVEN TAIL! AFTER THAT, WE WILL HAVE A SPECIAL THREE-WAY MATCH BETWEEN BLUE PEGASUS, PHOENIX REBORN, AND FAIRY TAIL!"

* * *

The battle between Sabertooth and Raven Tail ended in a Sabertooth victory.

Yukino was barely able to take Flare out. Sting and Rogue took out Kurohebi and Obra by using hand-to-hand combat **(I, frankly, have absolutely no idea whether Sting and Rogue have any hand-to-hand combat experience, so I just decided that, hey, it's fanfiction, so they each have taijutsu skills the level of a high chunin.)** before falling unconscious due to exhausting. They were mages, not martial art experts (unlike a certain pair of green spandex wearing males who were currently screaming out how youthful Sting and Rogue were).

Nullpuding and Orga knocked each other out while Rufus took on Alexei. After a hard battle, Alexei had the bad luck to trip over the unconscious Flare before crashing into the oncoming Yukino and having his mask fall off, revealing Ivan.

Mato wasted no time and yelling this out.

"THAT IS AGAINST THE RULES! IVAN DREYAR, YOUR GUILD IS HEREBY DISQUALIFIED! YOUR GUILD LEADERS MAY NOT PARTICIPATE, HONORARY GAME OR NOT!"

At which the same green spandex wearing males began shouting about how Ivan was being extremely unyouthful.

"WELL, IT SEEMS THAT SABERTOOTH HAS WO-"

"WHAT THE FREAKING HELL!" The shout came from Sting, who, upon cracking Raven Tail's shiny purple one, discovered a pair of boxers - boxers with the phrase "I'm a manly man" written all over it.

Another cry of "WHAT THE FREAKING HELL!" soon came from Rogue, who, upon cracking Sabertooth's shiny blue one, discovered women's lingerie - presumably a matching set. **(This was suggested by a old friend - from my old school.)**

Everyone began laughing.

Mato coughed into the microphone ("AHEM, AHEM!") before yelling out, "AND NOW IT'S THE THREE WAY GAME!"

* * *

"AWESOME! WE GOT A SHINY ORANGE BALL!" The cry of joy came from Naruto, who jumped around until a scowling Sasuke (who was obviously unhappy with the color of the ball) punched him on the head, causing a very nice faceplant.

"WELL WE GOT A RED ONE! IT'S LIKE FIRE!" Natsu, on the another side of the field, screamed back.

"ORANGE IS DEFINITELY MORE AWESOME!" It seems that Naruto got up.

"NO IT'S NOT!"

"YES IT-"

"NATSU! SHUT UP AND CONCENTRATE!" Erza screamed at Natsu before whacking him on the head with her GSoUD. Poor Natsu, she still hasn't forgiven him for making Lucy leave.

"HN!" The agreeing grunt came from Sasuke, which in Uchiha language, said "SHUT THE HELL UP OR I'LL MAKE YOU SHUT THE HELL UP FOREVER." It was emphasized by Uchiha Glare #67: Shut up or I'll make you shut up. And I will make sure it's eternal. **(The stare and the "Hn" said about the same thing.)**

"Y-yes, Erza-sama."

"Fine, fine, teme."

"MEN! DO YOUR BEST!" called Ichiya.

"HAI! ANIKI!"

"START!" called Mato, and immediately the Phoenix Reborn field was covered with orange-wearing blonds.

"W-what kind of magic is that?" gasped Gray.

"LET'S GO EVERYONE!" called Naruto before Naruto clones began swarming the two other fields. Erza tried to immobilize them, but they just poofed away when she stabbed them. Gray and Juvia managed to get them into ice prisions and water prisons, but some poofed away while other poofed away and left...rocks? in their place.

"TAKE THIS! PARALYZING PERFUME!"

After 50 Narutos had falled victim to Ichiya's "Paralyzing Perfume", the rest got noseplugs from somewhere in their jumpsuits and continued charging forward.

This was already hard enough for the mages.

And then the Naruto clones began using henge.

Natsu, for example, spied Erza (who was actually a Naruto-clone) coming towards him. She seemed really worried.

"Erza-san! What's wrong?"

Erza gasped. "Y-you've got to go h-help def-fend the goal!" before collapsing onto the ground.

"Erza! Are you alri-"

"L-leave! I-I'm fine...just go! W-we can't...lost...this..."

"Yes, ma'am!" Natsu abruptly turned tail and dashed towards the sparkly red ball. Behind him, Erza slowly got up and looked around before poofing into smoke.

The real Naruto jolted up and grinned. "Fairy Tail's first defenses are down."

* * *

"MEEEEEEEEN!" A Naruto clone disguised as Ichiya charged through the fray.

"MEEEEEEEEN!"

"HAI! ANIKI!"

"MEN! YOU MUST TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CONFUSION AND STEAL ONE OF THE OTHER TEAM'S BALLS! I SHALL GUARD OUR BEAUTIFUL YELLOW BALL!"

"HAI! ANIKI!" Eve, Ren, and Hibiki charged off, deciding to take on Fairy Tail first since it seemed easier to hide there.

Clone-Ichiya continued on his way towards the goal. Opening his jacket, a Naruto clone henged into a yellow ball took the place of the actual ball. Another Naruto clone quickly took the ball and dashed back to Phoenix Reborn territory while clone-Ichiya dispelled himself.

"Blue Pegasus, defeated."

* * *

"Look over there," said Kakashi. "Naruto has started using smoke bombs."

"How the hell did he get so many?" asked Sakura.

Sasuke shrugged. "He probably stole some from us."

"A-actually, N-Naruto-kun stole the smoke bombs from everyone he could get it from." said Hinata. "I-including you, S-Sasuke-san..."

"I am going to kill that dobe."

* * *

"AAAAAAAAHHHH! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!" Natsu, as he was a dragon slayer, had a pretty darn good sense of smell. And since these smoke bombs were designed to assault most of the five senses (smell included) Natsu and Gajeel were out of the game, while Laxus stumbled around like a severely drunk Elfman.

This cut the Fairy Tail team in half.

And with the smoke rising everywhere, Naruto could dash in, grab the ball, and dash out.

* * *

"WELL WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! PHOENIX REBORN AS MANAGED TO GET BOTH BALLS! THEY'RE THE WINNER!"

"H-how?" gasped Erza. Frantically, she looked for Natsu, and, upon seeing him at the goalpost, ran over.

"Natsu! Why were you over here?"

Natsu frowned. "You told me to."

"I-I did not!"

* * *

Naruto broke open the orange ball and voila! He found lots of ramen!

"YES! See, Sasuke, orange was meant for me!"

"Hn." The Uchiha stared at the yellow ball he had been given before cracking it open. It was an Itachi plushie.

Lucy walked over. "Isn't that the guy you hate?"

"Yes..."

Kakashi frowned at his own red ball before tossing it to Lucy. "Here, Layla. I have a bad feeling about this ball."

Lucy cracked it and discovered that there was...nothing inside.

"Does your Sharingan let you see through stuff or something?"

"Noooooo."

* * *

"MEN! It is alright that we did not win. This just means that we have found a strong opponenet and must train harder!" proclaimed Ichiya.

"YES!"

* * *

Naruto was currently very busy slurping down all the ramen he got from the orange ball (Sasuke had no idea you could fit _that_ much ramen into a ball) while the others discussed a winning strategy.

And as for Red Dawn, it was rather simple.

For anything that was very dangerous (as in a very good chance of dying) either Hidan or Tobi would be sent in.

And that was that.

* * *

**K, this chapter's done.**

**I apologize for the very short chapter...there should be another chapter uploaded within the next few days (personally, I'm aiming to get it out today) for the Hidden Event.**

**I will say who is going in for the hidden event:**

**Phoenix Reborn: Uchiha Sasuke**

**Red Dawn: Uchiha Itachi**

**Fairy Tail: Gray Fullbuster**

**Blue Pegasus: Eve Tearm**

**Lamia Scale: Lyon Vastia**

**Sabertooth: Rufus Lohr**

**Mermaid Heel: Beth Vanderwood**

**Quartro Cerebrus: Yaeger**

**Nachi, Owl, and I wish you all a Happy New Year! And good luck with your tests...if you have any...(we have midterms after winter break)**

**Nachi**

**Owl**

**Byaku~**


	4. Hiding and Water and Fighting

**Hello again! I regret to inform you that this will (most likely) be the last update you shall have until...somewhere in April...I think...(Spring Break) as I must study for my midterms. I hate midterms. Especially the science and math ones. Proofs...and atom drawings...my least favorite shape is the acute scalene triangle.**

**Either way! Steering to happier topics!**

**Er...let's see...um...darn, I can't think of any happy things...*sighs***

**Well, I think I should make some things clear.**

**A "Jose19" PM's me about making the pairing Lucy/Naruto. Unfortunately, I can't due to the fact that:**

**1. I absolutely, positively, suck at romance writing. The best I can do is hugs. Or glomps. Or awkward situations. As you can see, not very good.**

**2. I am a Naruto x Hinata fan. And while Lucy/Naruto is not that bad (unlike some creepy pairings, like the one my friend told me about where someone paired up Rock Lee from Naruto and Severus Snape from Harry Potter), I just really don't have the heart to write it...**

**3. As for the problem of "Ninjas kill people, Fairy Tail doesn't, how does Lucy adjust", Lucy has been betrayed, and she also knows that there are some people who just won't change no matter what (like serial murderers). Plus, she's already mentally scarred from training with Gai. And Lee.**

**I apologize, this chapter was supposed to be out loooong ago, but _somebody_ stole the phone I was typing on and closed the window. Hence the fact that I lost 2,000 words.**

**And I'm changing the Hidden event. You fight until you can no longer fight, or you win. This chapter covers the Hidden Event and Water Ball event. Then it goes to one-on-one matches, with Lucy fighting against...Hibiki. My reasons for that will be discussed...in the next chapter. Or if you can figure it out why in this chapter. If you're one of those people that can't stand suspense, I suppose you could PM me.**

**Random Question:**

**Have you ever walked by a puddle in school, and wanted to jump in it, but didn't because there were 20 or so students that would probably stare?**

**Enough of the author note! TOOOOOO THE STOOOORY!**

* * *

"Man, I'm tired..." Naruto flopped back on his bed without moving. Sasuke walked past him to his bed, sitting down with as much dignity as an annoyed Uchiha could muster.

Kakashi looked up. "Maa, maa, calm down. Sasuke, you should probably go to sleep."

Sasuke gave him Uchiha Glare #17: I'm sorry, but are you crazy?

"I'm not kidding! Itachi should probably be sleeping now!"

"How'd you know when Itachi sleeps?"

Kakashi looked offended.

"I was on his ANBU squad for a bit. I _know_."

* * *

Itachi sneezed, effectively waking him up and the other four nins in the room with him.

The responses ranged from "Are you getting sick _again_, Itachi-san?" (Kisame) to "Shut the hell up, Pinkeye!" (Hidan).

Itachi scowled with as much dignity an Uchiha with a bedhead could muster.

"Foolish little brother. He should really stop talking about me."

* * *

"WELCOME EVERYONE TO THE HIDDEN EVENT!" Mato's voice screamed at six in the morning.

The result was a halfhearted cheer from the audience.

"LET'S GO OVER THE COMPETITORS! SABERTOOTH IS SENDING IN...RUFUS LOHR!"

Said competitor stepped up, swept his hat off his head, and bowed in a way that looked like he was trying to touch his head to the floor.

"LAMIA SCALE IS SENDING IN...LYON VASTIA, THEIR RESIDENT ICE MAGE! GRAY FULLBUSTER, A FELLOW ICE MAGE OF FAIRY TAIL, IS ENTERING AS WELL!"

Lyon stepped up and nodded before glancing at Gray, who glared back at him.

"AND WE HAVE BLUE PEGASUS SENDING IN EVE TEARM!"

Eve flashed a winning smile.

"WE HAVE MERMAID HEEL SENDING IN BETH VANDERWOOD! QUATRO CEREBRUS SEND IN YAEGER!"

Beth gave a smile and a bow, with Yaeger made a Superman pose.

"PHOENIX GUILD IS SENDING IN ONE SASUKE UCHIHA! RED DAWN IN SENDING IN ITACHI UCHIHA! COULD THESE TWO BE RELATED?!"

"That pumpkin-man," said Sasuke, "Seems to be stupid."

"Hn." said Itachi.

* * *

As the event started, Itachi closed his eyes, activating his Sharingan before looking through half lidded eyes. It seemed that the clones placed were nothing more than Bunshins, designed to appear real until you touched them...at which they would disappear. He was tempted to poke one, but after seeing that girl with braids lose a point after she mistakenly attacked that dog person clone thing.

The real dog person saw this and he immediately rushed towards the braid girl, and the spiky-light-haired boy and the dark-haired boy also came. The blondish boy came too, but Sasuke and the hat guy did not come. Itachi did a quick scan and discovered that the hat guy was (for some reason) trying to climb up a roof. Sasuke...was right behind him, and glaring Uchiha Death Glare #1: I want to kill you.

Itachi turned. And immediately aimed a kunai at Sasuke's head, which the other blocked with another kunai, and for a few minutes there was nothing but the sound of clanging metal. Then both Uchihas picked up the chakra spike. It seemed that the braid girl, dog person, spiky, dark, and blond had a fight and braid girl and dog person lost. Spiky-hair and dark-hair were now creating stuff out of ice and aiming them at each other, while blondish-hair was hiding, Itachi presumed, to fight either spiky or dark...whoever one.

And there was one other thing - the two fighting pairs were getting closer and closer to each other. And then they met. Itachi and Sasuke did the most reasonable thing any self-respecting ninja would do when encountering ice - try to melt it.

"KATON: GOUKAKYUU NO JUTSU!" Two giant fireballs appeared and pretty much destroyed all ice in the near vicinity...along with a good quarter of the city.

_Holy shit! These guys...are they like fire dragon slayers are something? I've only seen Natsu make such a big flame come out of his mouth..._ thought Gray.

_Holy shit! These guys...don't tell me there are more Natsu's in the world!_ Lyon mentally screamed.

And the biggest surprise was that the two calmly took out weird knife things and continued to fight. The taller guy suddenly jumped back and threw out a bunch of star things. He made hand signs and shouted out "Kage Shuriken no Jutsu!"

And the star things multiplied, hitting Lyon and Gray a few times in the legs. And judging by the cry and the crash, it seemed that they got Eve as well.

Both suddenly dove to the side, and a blast shattered the ground. Rufus lept down.

"I was hoping I could take you out with that, but it seems like that-AUGH!" Rufus crumpled onto the ground. Itachi chuckled.

"Tsukiyomi...completed."

And then they continued to fight, incorporating hand-to-hand along with using all sorts of "magic". Suddenly the two stopped and looked at each other's eyes, unmoving. Then suddenly the short fell.

Mato could barely stutter it out. "AND IT SEEMS THAT RED DAWN YET AGAIN TAKES THE VICTORY! RED DAWN IS IN THE LEAD WITH 20 POINTS, WITH PHOENIX REBORN FOLLOWING AT 19 POINTS! SABERTOOTH FOLLOWS AT 18 POINTS! MERMAID HEEL IS NEXT WITH 12 POINTS! LAMIA SCALE, FAIRY TAIL, AND BLUE PEGASUS ARE TIED WITH 7 POINTS! QUARTRO PUPPY IS LAST WITH 3 POINTS!"

The audience was silent. How was it that a new guild, barely a year old, had managed to hold _both_ the first and second place positions?

* * *

"You overdid it again, Itachi-san." said Kisame as they were given a short break.

"Hn. Kisame, you're next." Itachi gestured at the giant water ball that was being created.

"Eh...It seems so."

"Leader-sama would like to tell you to please try not to kill anyone."

"I guess I'll do my best..."

* * *

Sasuke was emoing. If that was a word. Maybe "angsting" was a better phrase...unless that wasn't a word either.

"Oi, Sasuke-teme, calm down."

"I _can't_." hissed Sasuke. "That bastard...I definately can't beat him right now...I must acquire the Mangekyou!"

"Now, now. The Mangekyou is not something to be trifled with. It takes away you eyesight, you know." Kakashi said.

"How would you-"

"Itachi told me. He's quite a talker if you manage to get him drunk."

Sasuke just stared.

"I-Itachi...gets drunk?"

"Well, of course he does. Uchihas are _most definitely NOT_ above drunkeness."

Sasuke just sat there.

"Er...Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yes, Naruto?"

"I think the bastard is in shock."

* * *

"I WILL NOW EXPLAIN THE RULES FOR THE NEXT EVENT! EACH TEAM SEND IN ONE COMPETITOR! YOU MUST STAY IN THE WATER BALL FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE!" Mato nodded. "NOW, GO!"

Kisame was dropped into the water, along with Lucy, Rocker, Kagura, Jenny, Chelia, Erza, and Minerva.

And for most of the battle, Kisame did nothing but henge in a tiny fish and avoid pretty much every darn thing that was thrown in his direction by random people until Mato found him.

"OH! LOOKS LIKE OUR RED DAWN CONTESTANT IS CHOOSING TO WAIT THE FIRST FEW BATTLES OUT!"

Which caused everyone (which by now were Lucy, Erza and Minerva) to go after him. And Kisame decided, that, due to the fact that he was getting really bored (and plus he didn't like beating up girls) he was going to let himself get knocked out in fish form.

For Minerva to actually hit him, however, was a different story. It took her five minutes to get within a foot of him, and even then Kisame simply swam away. Then he stopped, henged back, and lashed back, sending her flying into the path of Lucy, who immediately struck Minerva with a lightning chakra-charged whip.

Minerva flew backwards into Erza, and right before she exited the ball, she threw a last attack which hit Kisame right in the gut. But her smile soon turned to irritation and Kisame flew out of the ball and landed perfectly right where he stood before the event, all the while treating it like some sort of theme park ride.

Lucy was a bit reluctant to take out Erza, but then again, Erza had gotten mad at Natsu and (according to some rumors) has severely beat him up. So she allowed herself to get flung out.

"AND THE VICTORY GOES TO FAIRY TAIL!" came the voice of Mato. "NOW, RED DAWN IS TIED WITH PHOENIX REBORN WITH 29 POINTS! SABERTOOTH FOLLOWS WITH 24 POINTS! MERMAID HEEL HAS A SCORE OF 20 POINTS! FAIRY TAIL HAS A SCORE OF 17 POINTS! LAMIA SCALE AND BLUE PEGASUS ARE TIED WITH 12 POINTS! AND QUATRO CEREBRUS IS STILL LAST WITH 5 POINTS!"'

* * *

_Flashback_

_"So...what is this paper?" asked Lucy._

_"This paper," said Tsunade, "Will determine your chakra type. Wind, fire, lightning, water, or earth."_

_Lucy channeled some chakra, and the paper crinkled._

_Tsunade showed mild surprise. "Hm. I was expecting that you'd be a water type...but lightning was second on my list."  
_

_Flashback End_

* * *

**And that's all for this chapter!**

**Nah...just kidding. It's just a chapter break. Let your brain process all this info (like me when I proofread it) and...get a cookie maybe...or a drink of water...or, if you're reading this at two in the morning, go to sleep.**

**Or you can just keep reading.**

* * *

"Great job, Erza!"

"Yeah! We're in third place now!"

Erza smiled, but a thought just kept nagging her. That Layla girl obviously had enough strength to knock her out. But why?

Erza mulled over this. A thought struck her. Wasn't Layla the name of Lucy's mom? When they had broken into Lucy's home to find her, they found a box of belongings of her mother's. Maybe...Lucy could be Layla?

* * *

Another break was scheduled. Obviously, the pairings weren't random, they were being chosen.

* * *

"ALRIGHT EVERYONE! WE WILL NOW BE HAVING BATTLES!" came the overly cheerful voice of Mato.

Naruto turned to Sasuke. "Is it just me, or does Mr. Pumpkin seem high?"

"Hn. I'd label him as drunk."

"FIRST MATCH IS: LAYLA FROM PHOENIX REBORN, VERSUS HIBIKI LATES OF BLUE PEGASUS!"

"Good luck," called Kakashi. "And please don't kill your opponent, it creates quite a bit of paperwork."

Lucy stepped down and face Hibiki.

"I usually don't like to fight women," said Hibiki, "But I'm afraid I must."

Lucy shrugged, facing the groung. "I usually prefer not to fight at all, but when it seems like the opponent underestimates me..."

Her head snapped up, and Hibiki was given a full view of a look that could rival Tsunade's when Jiraiya fell from a tree and faceplanted into her chest.

"I FEEL LIKE BEATING THE CRAP OUT OF THEM!"

Naruto, in the bleachers, calmly said,

"That Hibiki guy is screwed, isn't he?"

The responses ranged from the uncaring "Hn." (Sasuke) to the enthusiastic "Of course! Don't underestimate us kunoichi!" (Sakura) and the perverted giggles (Kakashi).

"START!"

Hibiki immediately ran through his archive, and was surprised to see that there was a faint link to one Lucy Heartphilia. He frowned, and as he dodged Layla's attacks, he studied her.

_The hair seems about right...but her eyes are green...those could be contacts, thought, and her figure seems to be right...only one way to figure out!_

And sadly, Hibiki decided that it was necessary, and he darted in and felt Layla's chest.

From that moment on, it became a one-sided battle: helpless man against furious woman.

* * *

"That pervert..." Sakura's fist twitched, wanting to POUND THAT PERVERT'S HEAD IN AND SCREW THE CONSEQUENCES.

Next to her, in a rare act of fury, Hinata was also ready to Gentle Fist Hibiki up to the point where he couldn't even tell if he could blink or not.

The boys immediately scooted away.

* * *

"IT SEEMS THAT LAYLA HAS WON! POOR HIBIKI, HE SUFFERED THE WRATH OF A FURIOUS WOMAN! WILL SOMEONE PLEASE CARRY HIM OFF?"

Two medics came and carefully lifted the groaning Hibiki on a stretcher and took him away.

"WELL, NOW IT WILL BE...ROCKER AGAINST NORBARLY!"

Naruto, upon learning that members of the same guild could be made to fight each other, immediately hoped that he'd be against Sasuke.

Sasuke, upon learning that members of the same guild could be made to fight each other, immediately hoped that he's be against Itachi.

Itachi, upon learning that members of the same guild could be made to fight each other, immediately hoped that he wouldn't fight Hidan or Tobi.

* * *

The result was both opponents forfeiting, saying something about how "Fighting comrades was not wild!"

* * *

"ALRIGHT...NOW, WE HAVE...RUFUS LOHR OF SABERTOOTH VERSUS TOBI OF RED DAWN!"

Red Dawn stared. Finally, Kisame said, "I pity that Rufus guy."

"Hn."

"Ah, you do have a point, Itachi-san."

"His clothes look expensive."

"Geez. If he was a Jashinist, he's have a better chance of surviving..."

**(Itachi, when he said "Hn.", meant "At least it's not one of us.")**

* * *

"YATTA!" yelled Naruto. "WE DON'T HAVE TO FIGHT TOBI!"

Sasuke actually sagged in visible relief, while Sakura and Hinata sank down and sighed happily.

Natsu whispered to Gray, "Why do you think they're so afraid of him?"

"Maybe Tobi's a really strong mage or something."

"Oh."

* * *

"WHY WON'T YOU JUST DIE!" screamed a frustrated Rufus, as, about an hour later, had not managed to hit Tobi.

"But, if Tobi dies, then Red Dawn loses the battle! Red Dawn can't loose the battle! It's very important!"

Tobi suddenly stopped.

"Rufus...Rufus-san, isn't your name like a dog's name or something? Wait...that means you could be a dog! Bark, Rufus-chan, bark!"

"DIE!"

* * *

"Oi, Gray. It seems that Tobi really is a strong mage."

"You're right..."

* * *

Another hour later, Rufus had caught Tobi, but for some reason, each attack just went through him.

Rufus _really_ wanted to yank his hat off his head and stomp on it. Hard. Like a child. And he didn't care what the guild leader said.

Ok, maybe he did care a little bit...but he was already screwed, so it was fine if he got even more screwed, right?

WRONG.

* * *

"Proctor! I forfeit!" called Tobi just as Rufus collapsed unconscious.

"WHY?"

"Because Rufus-san is hurt. So he can't fight. And plus I want to eat ice cream. Bye!" Tobi walked out of the ring.

"ER...LET'S JUST LEAVE THIS AS A TIE..."

* * *

**This chapter is now finished. Really, it is.**

**Next chapter should be up in Spring Break.**

**Bye!**

**Nachi**

**Owl**

**Byaku~**


	5. The Power of Tsukiyomi

**It has come to my notice that Red Dawn and Phoenix Reborn are waaaay to much in the lead...and I'm killing Quartro Puppy. Mainly since it's hard for us to remember the names of them. Plus, I have to continuously refer to the wiki to find out what the heck they do anyways...**

**Ok. So, this day's event may surprise you.**

**Sort of.**

**Yeah.**

**...**

**Jashin, I really need to start updating more. I'm pretty much forgetting what happens in this story.**

**I'm listening to Sayonara Memory by 7 oops. Ending Song #24 for Naruto Shippuden. I think it's the best ending song ever.**

**Itachi's genjutsu may be a bit disturbing...**

**Random Fact:**

**Walloonphobia (real phobia) is the fear of Walloons. Walloons are not wall balloons. They are French people who live in Belgium.**

* * *

"WELCOME EVERYBODY! TODAY'S EVENT IS...MASS DESTRUCTION!" screamed Mato.

Okay, what the hell.

"YES, YOU HEARD ME, MASS DESTRUCTION! WHOEVER CAUSES THE MOST DESTRUCTION WINS!"

* * *

_At Phoenix Reborn..._

"We should send in Sakura."

"Hn."

"The teme says yes."

"E-er, I think it's a good idea."

"Well then, Sakura, you're in."

* * *

_At Red Dawn..._

"We should send in Hidan or something." said Leader.

"Nah." said Kisame. "I'll handle this."

* * *

_At Fairy Tail..._

"BOOM! CRASH! BANG!" cheered Natsu.

* * *

"OK CONTESTANTS...GO!"

Orga Nanagear was charging in from Sabertooth, followed by Jura Neekis from Lamia Scale. Hibiki Lates from Blue Pegasus ran after them, using his Force Blast on everything he could see. Natsu Dragneel from Fairy Tail followed soon after, and he was burning up everything he could. Mermaid Heel wasn't exactly geared towards destruction, so Beth went in since her attacks were probably the most effective.

(Quarto Puppy was eliminated since they only had 5 points)

"SHANNARO!" yelled Sakura, slamming her fist into the ground and destroying a couple of buildings.

Leader turned to Kisame. "So?"

Kisame walked over to Itachi and snapped his pocky box in two. He pointed to a random contestant (which, unfortunately, happened to be Orga) and said,

"That guy did it."

Would you like to see a rage-filled Itachi? Who was as angry as that time when he saw a someone trying to molest Sasuke?

**(Well, I wouldn't. I have AngryItachiphobia. Not a real phobia. I made it up. But it could be real.)**

So, instead of trying to destroy buildings, Itachi tried to destroy Orga...and destroying some buildings in the process, which in turn sorta destroyed Hibiki's right arm...and sent him out of the game.

* * *

It was rather pathetic to say that after Itachi had destroyed a good 10% of the city, he was able to destroy Orga, and, his revenge complete, stopped rampaging and calmly took out a cup of tea and drank it.

Jura was still rampaging with his Earth Magic. Natsu was setting everything on fire, Sakura was punching everything is sight, Beth was shooting carrots everywhere, Hibiki was out of the destructing, and Itachi was drinking tea.

When 30 minutes had passes, Natsu had the most destruction, followed by Jura, Sakura, Itachi, Beth, Hibiki, and Orga.

"WHAT AN UPSET! IT SEEMS THAT FAIRY TAIL COMES UP WITH 27 POINTS! LAMIA SCALE FOLLOWS WITH 21 POINTS, PHOENIX REBORN IS THEN WITH 36 POINTS, MERMAID HEEL IS NOW WITH 25 POINTS, RED DAWN WITH 35 POINTS, AND BLUE PEGASUS STILL HAS MANAGED TO GET 15 POINTS...BUT SABERTOOTH STAYS THE SAME WITH 24 POINTS!"

"Itachi..." muttered Leader. "Who knew he had so much potential if you could unlock it..."

"Leader-sama," whispered Konan. "Why couldn't you have gone in? Your Shinrai Tensei..."

"I don't want to reveal myself..." Leader whispered back.

"How is that revealing yourself..."

"Well, then I can't surprise my opponents..."

"Hey, what are Leader and Konan talking about?" asked Kisame.

Hidan grinned. "I bet it's about their se-GUOH!"

Leader had kicked Hidan straight in the stomach and sent him into the arena, whose sign currently said "FIRST BATTLE: HIDAN OF RED DAWN VERSUS JURA NEEKIS OF LAMIA SCALE" and Jura was standing in the arena, arms crossed and waiting.

Hidan got up. "Stupid leader, kicking me down here...hm? Are you my opponent?"

"...Yes."

"Oh. I would say it's nice to meet ya, but it's not very nice. So...I guess it's nice to defeat ya instead."

"...Likewise."

"Ok. Then, let's begin." said Hidan, and he threw his scythe.

* * *

It was an understatement to say that the battle was a tie. Jura wasn't able to kill/injure Hidan permanently, thanks to his immortality and all (plus, Hidan learned how to sew stuff together really fast) and Hidan wasn't able to stay still long enough to draw his circle and put an end to it all.

Finally, about 2 hours later, drained of magical energy/chakra and physical energy, both were forced to admit defeat, earning both guilds 5 points.

* * *

"NEXT BATTLE: GAJEEL REDFOX OF FAIRY TAIL VERSUS EVE TEARM OF BLUE PEGASUS"

Gajeel won. By a lot.

* * *

"NEXT BATTLE: UCHIHA ITACHI VERSUS ERZA SCARLET OF FAIRY TAIL"

Erza knew this weasel guy had some kind of power with his eyes. So,she just had to avoid staring into his eyes. Easy, right?

No.

Itachi dodged every single one of her attacks with ease. It was like he could see the future...Erza wondered if that was another power of his eyes.

Itachi sat down on a large piece of debris and pulled his left hand out of his sleeve.

"Couldn't we just sit and talk?"

"Oh hell no." Said Erza. "I have to win this for my guild."

"It's too bad, really. You," Itachi pointed at Erza, "are now caught in my illusion."

Erza looked at his pointer finger. What did that have to do with anythi-

Blood.

Erza saw blood. Blood everywhere.

"It was too bad you broke out, as well." Erza's head snapped to the side. Her opponent was sitting on the same rock as before. She involuntarily took a step backwards and her foot hit something. She turned to look.

It was the lifeless body of Natsu, with 3 holes brutally blown in his body so his intestines spilled out. She covered her mouth in horror, and looked up. Her guild mates were all dead, so with their necks broken, their heads jutting out at unnatural angles, others with their heads cut off and mounted on poles. Some were strung up by their intestines. Others had been skinned and gutted, a empty skin lying on the ground with the skeleton and internal organs lying next to the skin. Some had wide, horror filled eyes, glassy and empty, that stared up sightlessly to the sky. Erza walked backwards, and she saw the Master. He was in the worst condition; blood was everywhere, half his head was blown away, and (this was the worst part) his heart and brain had been torn out and sat on a plate arranged with decorative flowers.

Erza gasped. Suddenly, the image was all gone, and they all stood before her again, waving and smiling. Erza breathed out a sigh of relief, but she suddenly saw a cloaked figure stand behind Levy and raise its sword. Erza opened her mouth to call out, but the figure slashed down in a violent motion, slicing Levy in half. The figure waded through the guild members, slashing at them all violently. Erza's hand went to her sword, but everything disappeared again, her guild mates again alive and happy. But then they were captured, and brutally skinned and gutted, all when they were still alive. It happened again and again, her guild mates being killed in a different manner every time.

The cloaked figure was there every time. Finally, after rounds of brutal slaying, the figure pulled off its hood. It was Lucy.

Erza gave a soundless scream and crumpled to the ground.

In the real world, the crowd watched in silence as Titania, Queen of Fairies crumpled to the ground suddenly after a mere 30 seconds of standing still. Mato could barely get the call of victory out. Natsu ran out and grabbed Erza's shoulders. He shook them and called her name.

Itachi sighed. It was futile. Victims of Tsukiyomi didn't wake up _that_ fast. It usually took days, and sometimes they never woke up. He had done a good job of breaking the armor girl, though. He had taught her a good lesson. A very good lesson indeed. He strode back to his team, ignoring the shouts of "Erza! Erza, wake up!" and the killing intent was would probably be at the level of a high chunin, low jounin maybe.

* * *

"NEXT BATTLE: LAYLA OF PHOENIX REBORN VERSUS NATSU DRAGNEEL OF FAIRY TAIL"

Layla stiffened before jerking herself back to reality and walking down to arena.

"Yo!" said Natsu. "I don't wanna fight you since you look like a nice guy, but I've gotta for my guild. Everyone in the guild is really important to me, you know."

That was no doubt triggered by the scare he got from Erza.

Layla snapped.

* * *

"Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit shitshitshitshitshitshitshit shit!" muttered Naruto.

Kakashi sighed and tried to immerse himself in his book.

Sasuke sat there. And aimed Uchiha Glare #5: You traitor! at Natsu.

* * *

"You...don't know what you're talking about..." muttered Layla.

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone...knows the story...of the girl who was betrayed by you...You...You say that everyone in the guild is really important to you...so...why did you tramply over that girl's feelings?"

"W-what? I-I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Of course you do..."

The contact lenses disappeared. Layla, now Lucy, looked up.

"Now...how would you like it to see everyone in your _precious_ guild trampled over just like how I was!?"

"L-Lucy? W-what are you-Augh!"

Lucy punched Natsu in the mouth.

"Don't you dare call me that!"

* * *

"That person's...Lucy?"

That was the thought that ran through everyone's minds.

"She snapped." said Kakashi.

Leader nodded. "Yes, yes she did."

* * *

"Open, Gate of the Lion!"

"Ah! Lucy! What can I do for you toda-"

"Leo, I don't care if you're going to help me or not, I'd just like to say that I am going to send him to hell."

Leo's eyes widened. "Isn't he that guy that-"

"Yes. That is why I will send him to hell."

Leo cracked his knuckles.

"Natsu, my enemy, you are dead."

"Well shit." muttered Natsu.

* * *

Lucy swung her lightning-chakra-filled whip straight at Natsu, who lept into the air to dodge it. The whip slammed into a wall and Lucy swung it again, this time successfully hitting the airborn Natsu, who gasped in shock as volts of electricity danced through him. He came thudding into the ground, when Lucy snapped her whip back into a circle.

Natsu managed to get up.

"KARYUU NO HOUKOU!"

Lucy stared.

Ox. Dog. Rabbit. Snake.

"Fuuton: Daitoppa!"

The fire ball increased in size and was sent straight back at Natsu, who barely avoided it. The arena wall, however, wasn't so lucky. It was destroyed, and the audience in that area came crashing down, everyone screaming.

"Ok, seriously, Lucy, what the hell are you thinki-"

Killing intent was released. Killing intent so massive and angry that it made Leo close his gate. Killing intent so full of the intent to kill that it could rival Tsunade's killing intent for perverts.

"You. Have. Three Seconds. To. Choose. Who. From Your Guild. Will. Die."

Natsu glared. "I won't do that!"

Lucy smiled. "Then, I will." And she ran forward, and engaged Natsu in taijutsu.

Ok, well, it was more of pummeling Natsu than taijutsu, since normally when you have hand-to-hand fighting in the Grand Magic Games, your opponent fights back...and hits you at least once, or at least comes close to it. But Natsu was just barely dodging and defending and he wasn't able to get a hit in.

Natsu actually became sort of scared of what she might do. If she hurt little Asuka...

Lucy cursed and jumped back as Natsu swung a fire-powered fist at her head. Even so, it glanced on the side and her world was sent spinning for a split second. It really was fortunate Natsu couldn't move as fast as a shinobi like Gai...

* * *

_"EEEEHHH!" Lucy gasped out as Gai sped around the training ground faster than the eye could follow._

_"See! You must be able to do this!"_

_"No way! I can't run that fast!"_

_"Then, I'll help you." A purple-haired woman came out of the woods._

_"Ah! Anko-san! How are you this youthful morning!"_

_"Fine, Gai. Now. Lina, was it?"_

_"Uh..."_

_"No? Then...Lia? Luna? Luka?"_

_"It's Lucy..."_

_"...I knew that. Now, Lucchi, let's get to training."_

_"It's Lucy..." protested Lucy before she was forced to dodge senbon, snakes, kunais, dango sticks, empty red bean soup cans, and whatever else sharp/painful Anko had on her at the moment._

* * *

"Man, Lucy, you got faster." said Natsu. "Where were you all this time?"

"What? You expected I would just sit there for three years and cry?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Shut it. I'm different now. I'll get my revenge." hissed Lucy. Seeing Natsu's frightened look, she mentally thanked Anko for teaching her about intimidation.

* * *

_"Alright, Luka, one thing you've got to know is that sometimes strength and smarts isn't enough. You've got to scare the enemy."_

_"Er...how?"_

_"Think about it. You're trying to buy...ice cream! Yeah, ice cream. Your favorite flavor's...red bean! And there's only one left. Then another guy comes over, and he wants the red bean one too. So, he starts telling you about how the ice cream's gonna make you fat and how he'll beat you up if he doesn't get it and all that stuff. What would you do?"_

_"Well...I'd leave. An-"_

_"SEE!" there was a triumphant grin on Anko's face. "You'd leave! That's intimidation right there, Luma!"_

_"It's Lucy..."_

_"So. We're going to try this out on some Sound prisoners I found on the weekend._

_"Ok..."_

* * *

"Maybe I should kill that precious Lisanna of yours..." mused Lucy. "Her hair's rather pale...could use a dye of maybe blood red."

"DON'T YOU DARE LAY A HAND ON LISANNA!" screamed Natsu and he shot towards Lucy.

He coughed up blood. Lucy had held a chakra protected fist out, and Natsu, in his haste, and driven his stomach straight onto the fist. He dropped to the ground, coughing and choking.

Lucy raised a hand.

"Know you place, you _traitor_." The last word was spoken as if the very word was disgusting to say, and Lucy's hand descended on Natsu's neck.

Natsu crumpled, lifeless.

Lucy could hear the guild members clustering around Natsu, wondering if he was dead and gossiping about Lucy's behavior. Lucy hmphed. There were two points on the neck; one would kill you, the other knocked you out. She had hit the second. Nothing to worry about.

"IT SEEMS THE WINNER IS LAYLA, OR SHOULD I SAY, LUCY HEARTPHILIA OF PHOENIX REBORN!"

* * *

Fairy Tail was clustered around two beds. One held Natsu, and the other Erza. Natsu had woken up, but he was in some sort of shock and wasn't exactly responding properly. Erza was out cold in a coma and nonresponsive, worrying Makarov, who finally worked up the courage to go ask Kakashi what the hell it was that took out Erza so fast.

"Well, that's quite simple," said Kakashi. "It's classified."

"How about the people who can use it?"

"Classified."

"Anything related to it?"

"It's all classified, my friend."

Makarov let out a frustrated breath. In the end, Kakashi refused to tell him, only saying that Erza should wake up in a few days...hopefully. That was not reassuring in the slightest.

Next time, that Uchiha Itachi would face his wrath...injuring his children so badly...it was as if Itachi was striking to kill.

* * *

_Layla...is Lucy...why is she...so mad...she didn't even let me...say sorry...why...why...WHY?!_

Lisanna, who had been watching over him, cried out in alarm as Natsu suddenly began twitching as if he was having a seizure.

"Natsu? NATSU? _NATSU, WAKE UP, IT'S ALL OVER!_" cried Lisanna as she shook him. Natsu's eyes snapped open, and Lisanna nearly dropped him back on the bed.

His eyes were like someone who had lost his memory.

* * *

Mato had allowed a training week, and on the second day, Erza woke up.

Everyone came to ask if she was fine, but her reaction was strange. Erza searched the room with her eyes. When Gray asked her what was wrong, she said she was looking for the "hooded Lucy" since she was going to kill them all.

Makarov assured her that they were all alive. Erza denied it all.

"I saw you all die...you all died so many times..." she gasped out, hands shaking. "Sliced...blown to pieces...tortured...mutilated..."

Erza fell back on the pillows, her pupils dilating and her breathing uneven.

* * *

**This chapter was rather long. Part of it was to make up for the long absence, part of it was to show Nachi that yes, I will post a new chapter if you finish your book report.**

**See. Fanfiction is good for school.**

**...**

**Wait. Wasn't the book report due the next day anyways?**

**...**

**NACHI! **

***tries to strangle Nachi but is restrained by Itachi***

**Uh...since Byaku's trying to kill Nachi right now, I'll just end the chapter here...**

**-Owl**

**Nachi**

**Byaku~ (who is still trying to get out of Itachi's grip)**


	6. The Lead is Lost

**Hi! This is Nachi, and I'm doing the intro since Byaku...well...let's just say it involved a math test...and a grade drop of an entire letter...she really hates math right now.**

**Right. Moving on. Now. Some news about this story.**

**We _might_ be able to get out another chapter somewhere on spring break...that really depends on whether Byaku can get over writer's block. She had to retype this entire chapter...twice. It sort of...kills your inspiration.**

**Um...**

**I'll just get to the story now. No need for an author's note.**

* * *

Makarov stood and looked at his guild. They were strong and cared for their comrades. Caring was a good trait, but not so good when they all wanted to storm the Red Dawn guild and get revenge for torturing poor Erza like that. One, the fact that just _one_ of the members could do that to Erza was frightening and Makarov didn't want his guild to get anymore injured. Two, it was forbidden to go past curfew.

Makarov sighed. Desperate times called for crazy measures.

He began to write a letter.

_My good guild member Gildarts:_

_Get your butt over here._

_With love,_

_Makarov_

He sent it by that convenient spell thing that would definitely make it to Gildarts.

Makarov smiled. Oh, Red Dawn...kolkolkol...

* * *

"Achoo!"

"A-Ah, R-Russia-san, have you caught a cold?" an extremely frightened Lithuania turned a nervous head.

"Nyet. Someone is talking about me. You sneeze when people talk about you, da?" and Russia gave a smile that would have been friendly if...well...it wasn't Russia.

"Y-Yes...I'llgoandmaketeanow!" Lithuania went of.

"Ah. Nervous. But it's okay. Soon, all will become one with Mother Russia, da?"

* * *

Slurp.

Sip.

Chug.

Sluuuuuurp.

Eh? EH? Why does the hot chocolate taste bitter?

This was the scene as the team of Red Dawn drank coffee on the cold winter morning that had been created by some weird magic.

(Kisame slurped, Itachi sipped, Kakuzu chugged...I think you know which one's Tobi.)

Phoenix Reborn were having the same situation, except everyone was sipping...except for Naruto, who was slurping ramen. As usual.

* * *

"HELLO, KAPOH!" Mato shouted cheerfully. "I THINK YOU ALL HAVE NOTICED THAT IT IS WINTER NOW!"

Nods and murmurs came from the crowd.

"...WELL, NOW THAT THAT PROBLEM IS TAKING CARE OF, I SHALL ANNOUNCE TODAY'S EVENT!" said Mato, who had switched from his winter getup to a flowery shirt (the weather had miraculously changed).

"HERE WE HAVE...A MAGIC POWER FINDER!"

A giant room on wheels was pushed out.

"ONE PERSON FROM EACH TEAM WILL GO INSIDE AND RELEASE THEIR STRONGEST MAGIC. ON THE SCREENBOARD HERE," Mato gestured to the electronic screenboard, "IT WILL DISPLAY THE DESTRUCTIVE POWER OF THEIR MAGIC. THIS SCREEN WILL DISPLAY THE TECHNIQUE THEY USE."

* * *

"FIRST UP: FROM FAIRY TAIL, WE HAVE OUR NEW MEMBER REPLACING ERZA SCARLET: GILDARTS!"

"EH?" shouted Naruto. "It's the pervert guy!"

"Naruto, your so-called 'pervert guy' is a very strong mage, you know."

"Doesn't matter. He's a pervert. So, I shall name him strong pervert guy...wait." Naruto scratched his head. "Why are all the strong guys perverts?"

"Because," Kakashi sai dramatically, "Our perversion gives up stre-OW! Sakura..."

"You deserved it, Ero-Sensei."

"...I really, really hate you now."

"Deal with it." Sakura turned away, leaving Kakashi to nurse his gigantic head bump.

No one was surprised at Gildarts' high ranking of 465 out of 500 (after all, the highest score went to Acnologia's giant bombing seven years ago, when two cities got destroyed) but they were curious as to why Gildarts was chosen to replace Erza.

Soon after that...Kakuzu came in with his Synchronized Arsenal of Elements and matched a 450.

And then it went to a tie after Jura used his Earth Magic.

Orga from Sabertooth used his 120mm Black Lightning Cannon, but it was only enough to score a 260, effectively placing him in almost-but-not-quite last place since Eve ended up with a 255 with his ice magic.

Fortunately for Eve (and not fortunately for Beth), Beth Vanderwood from Mermaid Heel was only able to score a 100 with her carrots.

Finally, Naruto came in for Phoenix Reborn.

And...well...he scored a 300. Why, you ask? Because he used his Harem no Jutsu.

And, while the Harem no Jutsu _would_ take out pretty much every male on the planet (it took out nearly every male watching except for the living statue people) the females would beat the user up.

Mermaid Heel was now with 36 points. Blue Pegasus ended up with 24 points, while Sabertooth was given a total of 39 points. Phoenix Reborn had a 42. Red Dawn ended up with a 43 and Mato decided that he might as well award Lamia Scale and Fairy Tail 10 points each, sending Lamia Scale up the ladder with 36 points, and Fairy Tail to third place with 37 points.

* * *

The one-on-one battles afterwards were between Lamia Scale, Mermaid Heel, and Sabertooth.

**(We figured that we might as well since Red Dawn and Fairy Tail were having way too much of a lead.)**

Kagura from Mermaid Heel went against Yukino from Sabertooth and won.

**(Canon battle...)**

Yuka from Lamia Scale went against Ren from Blue Pegasus and tied. Ren's Air Magic would have suffocated Yuka, but fortunately Yuka's magic, which was geared towards neutralizing mages, kept him alive and conscious.

Risley from Mermaid Heel went against Rufus from Sabertooth and lost. Which was probably good for Rufus because of his rather...humiliating defeat from Tobi. If he got beaten by Risley...well...it wouldn't be pretty.

Fairy Tail would have been last if not for the match-up of Gildarts versus Ichiya. Ichiya held up for an impressive 13 minutes, before being sandwiched between two rock slabs and being knocked out.

Mermaid Heel had 46 points. Blue Pegasus had 29 points, Sabertooth had 49 points, Phoenix Reborn still had 42 points, Red Dawn with 43 points, Lamia Scale with 41 points, and Fairy Tail now had 47 points.

* * *

When the tournament ended for the day, there was a great celebration, because most of them had beaten that two newbie guilds.

Mermaid Heel was celebrating too, but there was a good bit of property damage since Kagura was trying to strength Beth's vegetable attacks. Beth did as best as she could, since if she didn't, she'd be replaced. Kagura allowed her to pass with a nod.

Sabertooth was alternating between loudly shouting, bragging, and drinking to strategizing...and then going back to drinking when headaches became too much from the strategizing. They finally ended up too drunk to strategize properly and went to bed.

Lamia Scale had a quiet celebration but spent most of the time thinking of strategies to increase their score.

If anyone had gone to see Red Dawn and Phoenix Reborn, they wouldn't see anything. The two guilds were training, and NOBODY could see their training.

And as for Fairy Tail...

* * *

"AHAHAHAHA! DRINK AS MUCH AS YOU WANT! WE'RE SECOND PLACE! AHAHAHA!" Makarov loudly cheered as he chugged down his drink.

Everyone in the guild laughed and drank and laughed and drank some more.

Makarov smiled. "Soon, Kakashi, your Icha Icha shall be mine...very soon..."

* * *

Kakashi's nose twitched. Years of shinobi experience had taught him to control his sneezes. After all, when you're trying to assasinate someone, sneezing loudly will probably not do the trick.

Now...who could be talking about him? Maybe it was that Iwa nin he had unceremoniously dropped over a cliff 10 years ago? Perhaps he was still mad about it...or maybe it was that Iwa nin's friend who was retelling the tale.

Hm. Maybe it was the Fairy Tail guild master...Matorav, was it? No...Makarov. Yes. Makarov.

* * *

The wonderful celebration was abruptly cut short as Mato loudly awakened everybody early in the morning to go hunt for...flowers.

Yes. Flowers.

After finding flowers, you had to arrange the flowers.

Mato supposed he pitied the fact that most of the teams participating had terrible hangovers and decided to sleep instead of complete the task.

But, then again, wasn't it his job to make life hell (albeit temporarily) for these players?

He called out to the guilds.

"JUST SO YOU KNOW, SABOTAGE _IS_ ALLOWED!"

* * *

Ino grinned as she led Sasuke, Naruto, Kiba, and Akamaru out through the fields. Akamaru, the officials had said, counted as a guildmate, and, Kiba, being Kiba, would not go without Akamaru.

But now they had two noses and two people to follow them.

Akamaru worked with Sasuke, and Kiba with Naruto. The Inuzuka members would sniff out the scents of the flower Ino gave them, and Naruto/Sasuke would run and get them and bring the flowers to her _carefully_. Ino had flower arranging experience, and lots of it.

* * *

Pein had told Konan to go in for Hidan (as Hidan was pretty much useless) and also since she was the only one who knew anything about flowers that was not related to poison.

What turned out was a circle of flowers that looked like someone yanked a rainbow out of the sky and hybrided it with a bagel.

And fortunately Itachi had the smarts to shield the flower pot with his body because...

"AA-AA-AA-ACHOOOOO!" Tobi sneezed.

And if they ever knew anything about Tobi's sneezes, it was that they were very powerful.

Tobi was propelled a few...hm...seems like 20 feet or so up into the air...and landed smack on that pink-haired guy's head.

"EEYAH! PINK GUY THREW UP!"

Everyone else paused to wince, partly out of pity for Natsu and partly since their hangovers weren't gone yet.

* * *

At last, all the other guilds managed to get it into their heads to start the blasted flower arranging.

But it seemed as if they were still drunk...and it seemed that they were colorblind too.

After all, putting a bright brown (how could brown be very bright?) flower with a greenish-gray flower...well...wasn't the best combination.

So, they went off to sabotage.

* * *

Since the teams who were actually flower arranging (Phoenix Reborn, Mermaid Heel, Red Dawn, Sabertooth) were being embarrassed by the sabotagers (Lamia Scale, Fairy Tail, Blue Pegasus) in many ways (physically, verbally, and mentally), they got very little done, and, in the end, were awarded 10 points each since they...well...had something in the vase they were given.

Mermaid Heel had 56 points. Blue Pegasus had 29 points, Sabertooth had 59 points, Phoenix Reborn still had 52 points, Red Dawn with 53 points, Lamia Scale with 41 points, and Fairy Tail now had 47 points.

Sasuke was perfectly at ease with the fact that Mermaid Heel and Sabertooth were ahead.

He was _not_ at ease with the fact that Ita-that man's guild was ahead of them.

If he was ever going to beat Ita-that man (Ok, he really had to remember to call Itachi THAT MAN), he had to grow stronger.

* * *

"OK, EVERYONE! WE WILL GO INTO TAG-TEAM BATTLES! I WILL RANDOMLY PAIR UP TWO PEOPLE, AND THEY WILL HAVE TO FIGHT AGAINST THE OTHER TWO PEOPLE! THE WINNING PAIR GETS FIVE POINTS FOR THEIR GUILD!"

Mato dramatically unrolled a piece of paper.

"FIRST UP: ICHIYA AND NICHIYA OF BLUE PEGASUS VERSUS...UCHIHA ITACHI OF RED DAWN AND UCHIHA SASUKE OF PHOENIX REBORN!"

What.

* * *

**Will Itachi manage to work with Sasuke? Will Sasuke be able to keep fighting without glaring an Uchiha Death Glare at Itachi?**

**Will Erza wake up? Will Natsu be alright?**

**And...we're not going to answer this. **

**But we will give you an omake.**

**But this omake has a slight Soul Eater crossover...I guess that's what happens when we're reading/watching the same thing.**

**But, for those of you confused, search up "Soul Eater Excalibur" on Google.**

**One word: Lame.**

**OMAKE NUMBER 1 (WE THINK)**

**FAIRY TAIL MEETS EXCALIBUR**

**Erza stared at a picture of a sword.**

**Naruto walked over.**

**"What're you reading?"**

**"I'm reading about Exaclibur. It was rumored to be the best sword of all ti-wait, why are you making that face?"**

**Naruto's face:**

**(=A=)"**

**Naruto turned to her, still with that face.**

**"Do you really want to know?"**

**"Um...sure?"**

**"Then..." he handed her a slip of paper with an address on it.**

**"Go to this place."**

**"Um...ok..."**

_**A few hours later**_

**"Ah, Erza! You're back!" Natsu shouted cheerfully.**

**Erza now had the same face Naruto had.**

**"Erza, what's wrong?"**

**Erza held up a picture of Excalibur.**

**They all stared at it.**

**And then...**

******(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)" ****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)" ****(=A=)"********(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"****(=A=)"**

**********And everyone said together:**

**********"LAME."**

**********END OMAKE**

**********Then, we'll see you again...that is, if we can get Byaku to update.**

***********looks***

**********Oh. And also, we are running out of ideas for events. Any ideas? We'll credit you.**


	7. The World Didn't End After All

**I'm back!**

**Well...my math grade has still not improved, but I went off and read enough Hetalia fanfiction to give me a stomachache from laughing...and give me a headache from all the facepalms.**

**So for this chapter, we will have a short scene of Lucy training as a shinobi, and Sasuke and Itachi fighting together.**

**Well, it's more of Sasuke getting Itachi to fight...not exactly the battle you have in mind...but then again, I'm a humor person.**

**Don't worry, the world hasn't ended yet. It _will_ end when...**

**Zoro can get everywhere he wants.**

**Ichigo finds out his hair was bleached.**

**Sasuke and Itachi reconcile and hug. (Oh wait that sort of happens here...well, the hugging does. And if spilling out your life story counts as reconcilation...)**

**And...**

**Jiraiya is no longer a pervert and is instead dedicated to writing books about how there should be stricter laws about peeking.**

**Speaking of other things, has anyone seen the new Fairy Tail chapter? Mato's identity has been revealed (I think) and..**

**o_O It's kinda disturbing.**

* * *

When you are a shinobi, and have been a shinobi for a good number of years, you begin to see a pattern.

The pattern is that there are three types of days:

1. You manage to get through the day alive since, well, everyone you fought was defeated. Or you didn't fight at all.

2. You barely manage to get through the day alive.

3. You are dead.

Now the last one was a one-time only, but it was true. A shinobi over the age of 50 was usually admired for being able to stay alive for so long.

In fact, one of the greatest achievements for a shinobi was dying of natural causes.

Lucy learned that the hard way.

Tsunade had decided to put Anko in charge, as Lucy seriously needed to toughen up (she was the last member by blood of the Shokan clan). She had to learn how to channel chakra, otherwise her heritage was literally useless. Member of the Shokan clan were famous and feared for the ability to summon creatures to their aid with no scroll (this was because the contract was sealed at birth) so, most of the Hidden Villages came together to do what they usually did to clans who lived by themselves and were not very numerous.

They formed a temporary alliance that would last as long as their common interest existed. They would remove the people of the clan from the surface of the planet and plunge their homeland into eternal darkness.

In other words, obliberate the people's home and massacre them all.

**(We hope that has sort of managed to jog your memory.)**

Unfortunately for Lucy, Anko had a different idea of "toughening up" than Tsunade.

Namely, chasing Lucy with everything dangerous (including sharpened chopsticks...) and throwing everything that looked as if it would hurt (this included pots of soup) in the general direction of Lucy.

Of course, if those dangerous objects hit other objects...and caused them to fall, that was a bonus.

So, by the time Anko's time ended, Lucy had learned mostly how to run away very fast and avoid dangerous objects unconsciously. Like a certain Hetalia character.

Tsunade was hoping that this would end soon. The destruction was so great she could clearly see it from the Hokage offi-

Wait a minute.

_Was that depression in the shape of a phrase?!_

It was.

And it said...

ANKO RULES! THE REST OF YOU SUCK!

Tsunade sighed. Sake time.

* * *

**Now. Back to the actual story.**

* * *

Sasuke stared.

And stared.

And stared at the frustratingly _stupid, insolent display-board that would NOT CHANGE._

Because if he was reading it right, the board paired with him up with Uchiha Itachi.

_The_ Uchiha Itachi.

As in Uchiha-frickin'-Itachi, murderer of pretty much the entire Uchiha clan and whatever Uchiha distant blood relatives that might have bee drifting around out there. Uchiha Itachi, S-Class Missing Nin, child prodigy with a record of ANBU at 13.

Yes. _That_ Uchiha Itachi.

Also, his brother which he hated and wished to kill.

Sasuke paused to debate whether he ought to fight with him and gain the points...or go to the other side and screw the points and just _finish that bastard off._

Naruto, taking notice of Sasuke's slow descent into brooding emoness, quickly became overcome with the wish to "save" his friend.

And no, grabbing your friend around the middle and flinging him into the arena is not the way to save your friend from his descent into brooding emoness.

It was awkward, to say in the least.

It grew even more awkward when Sasuke, who was unsuccessfully landing (read as: going to faceplant into the ground), hit Itachi instead of the ground.

The two Uchihas fell to the ground with a rather loud "Oomph."

Both got up and pretended nothing happened.

"OK, THEN!" Mato shouted. "LET THE BATTLE BEGIN!"

* * *

"Let us go, Nichiya, and fight as men!" shouted Ichiya.

"Nichiya?" asked Natsu. He had managed to recover pretty darn fast, unlike Erza...who, by the way, was still in a coma. "I think I heard that somewhere..."

The bunny rabbit yanked off it's (his?) head, revealing something that looked like Ichiya's face and a cat squished together.

Everyone stared.

The _figure_ climbed out of the rabbit suit and stood next to Ichiya.

"FOR MANLINESS!"

"YES!"

Itachi paused, and then turned to Sasuke with a look that could have rivaled the look after seeing Exaclibur.

"Sasuke...can we please fight after those _things_ are taken care of?"

Despite him trying, Sasuke could not feel any hatred towards Itachi. Instead he felt a sort of pity and...an urge to HUG HIM AND TELL HIM IT'S OK?!

Ok...who spiked his tea?

**(After this, I'm pretty much screwing canon and making up perfumes for Ichiya.)**

* * *

"We shall end this in a few blows!" cried Ichiya.

He reached into the bunny suit and began pulling out bottles of strange purple liquid.

"Go! Illusion Perfume!" he shouted as all the liquid from the bottles was hurtled towards them.

They dodged the blast well enough, but they did not expect the perfume to form a dome and trap them inside.

Ichiya grinned, sparkled, gave a thumbs-up (both Uchihas shuddered at the sight) and cried, "The dome will keep you until you breathe in the perfume!"

Itachi scowled. Trained shinobi could usually hold their breath for about 5 minutes at most if not moving, 2 minutes if moving...after that they could probably survive for another 3 by running on chakra not moving, and another minute if moving..

And he was pretty sure this dome was going to last for a lot longer than that.

He started flashing Uchiha hand signs to his brother.

Sasuke carefully watched, as the signal for "Good job" was remarkably similar to the signal for "I hate you"...which was also very similar to the phrase "Get that giant book over here and hit this strange creature!"

_I. Breathe. Smoke. You. See. What. Happens._

Well, wasn't this heroic. Uchiha Itachi sacrificing the last shred of his sanity (wait, did he even have sanity left in the first place?) for his beloved little brother.

* * *

The first thing Sasuke noticed was that the dome went down once Itachi breathed in the perfume.

The second thing was that Itachi seemed completely uninterested in the battle.

"Are you by any chance...a psychiatrist?"

"...What?"

Ichiya frowned. "It seems as if the Illusion Perfume did not work as planned..."

Itachi shook Sasuke's shoulder. "Are you a psychiatrist? Because I really need one. Even Kisame said so. And when an insane shark-man-hybrid ("Hey!" protested Kisame) starts saying you need a psychiatrist even though said shark-man-hybrid needs one too, you REALLY NEED TO GO TO THE PSYCHIATRIST."

Sasuke just stared.

Itachi nodded. "So, are you a psychiatrist or not?"

Seeing as though it'd probably be the only way to actually fight him in the end, Sasuke sighed and said,

"Yes, I'm a certified psychiatrist."

Itachi nodded. "Oh good. Now, you see, I think I'm going insane. But then again, I wasn't exactly normal from the start. I didn't cry when I was born, and the only time I did for the first three years of my life was when I sort of went tumbling down 3 sets of stairs of the Hokage monument. And then after that I blew through the Academy in like 3 years instead of the like normal 6 or so, and my Genin Sensei and my teammates were kinda freaked out by me being a Genin at 7 and all, and then I hit Chunin at 8 and then Jounin at 10 and the only reason I wasn't Jounin at 9 was because I think mother blew some kind of fuse and father and she was all, 'You ought to be more considerate of your child' and blah blah blah, so he let me take a break for a year and..."

Sasuke just stared as his brother sat down on a rock and pretty much blared out his entire life story.

"And then the Uchiha clan were planning to do some kind of coup, which I didn't get at first since why would you need a coop for people, and then father said it was a different type and that they were gonna overthrow the Hokage, and I didn't want that. So for I while I was a double agent and sent info to the Hokage since I was an ANBU and all, and then that stupid Danzou comes and he goes, 'So I want you to kill the Uchiha because they pose a threat to our peace' and blah blah blah-bibbity-blah blah, and I'm like, 'How'd you expect me to kill the 432 clan members on my own?' and he's all, 'Well, I'm sure you can figure it out and he walks off and he says, 'Oh, you don't hafta kill Sasuke,' and I'm like, 'Yeah, about that, that's the least of my problems right now, and can I just disable them or something?' and Stupid Danzou's all, 'No, you've gotta kill them,' which was really weird since like 2 months ago he was all, 'We must retain the Uchiha bloodline!' and all that stuff, and now I've gotta kill them all, and I just realized that sort of sounded like Pokemon where they go 'Gotta catch them all!' or something like that, you know, it's been a while since I watched Pokemon, oh, and I'm getting off topic so where was I? Oh yeah, and then this guy pops out of nowhere and-"

Sasuke just stared.

One, his brother had revealed some kind of secret, and two, his brother was acting like a ranting Naruto.

By gods, what the hell was in that perfume?

"-And so this guy pops out of nowhere, and he's all, 'Hey, I'm Uchiha Madara!' and I'm all, 'Sure,' and he's like, 'No really, I have a bone to pick with the clan so I'll help you kill them!' So I have no choice, and I gotta go kill them, so I do, and then I'm a missing nin and leave and I go off and kill the lingering random Uchiha relatives in the world, and then I here about Akatsuki, and I go there, and it's pretty cool, I have a partner who's a lot better than Gai (Insert another shout of protest from Kisame here) and so it goes on, and then Naruto comes along and he talks to Leader, and he's all, 'Dude, peace isn't gonna come from this. You gotta go on an adventure with us,' and Leader goes, 'Adventure...yeah, that sounds fun, let's go!' And we all come here. So, what should I do?"

Sasuke could only go, "Well..."

Itachi nodded wisely. "I get it. You are contemplating you best course of action. I will wait."

Sasuke decided that he might try that old "effects-are-useless-if-user-is-useless" thing.

"Itachi, I have decided on your solution."

"What?"

Sasuke pointed to Ichiya and Nichiya. "I believe you are overly stressed. Go and knock those two unconscious."

"Well, I'm not sure how that works, but you're the psychiatrist, and you know best, I guess."

Itachi skipped (yes, he did skip) off and beat the two up.

* * *

Kakashi scowled under his mask.

_Well, that's one less S-rank secret to bother about..._

"The poor man!" Naruto sobbed. "Itachi had gone through so much...no wonder he acts so stiff!"

Next to him, Toby (the one from Lamia Scale) was crying his eyes out.

"Such...a noble opponent!"

The men from Blue Pegasus were doing the same.

Ichiya and Nichiya were knocked out, but you could see tears leaking out of their eyes and lips moving.

Itachi turned to Sasuke and literally glomped him.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou so much, Mr. Psychiatrist! It turns out I was stressed after a-"

The perfume wore off.

Itachi stepped back and dusted off his cloak.

"What happened, foolish little brother?"

Sasuke hugged him.

Completely ignoring his look of surprise, Sasuke hugged him tightly.

"You're back! The stiff, uncaring, emotionless, foolish-little-brother-saying Itachi is back! Yes!"

One word was going through Itachi's mind, although it is probably better expressed in this spelling:

Whut.

* * *

"So, you are saying that the perfume made me do _that_?" Itachi was so surprised that he did not speak in the customary Uchihanese language Uchihas usually spoke in.

Kisame nodded. "And then you went bat-shit-insane and babbled out your entire life story to Sasuke...and probably the world. Hence this giant pile of sympathy presents."

"...Hn."

"Ah, don't worry. Just drink it all away."

A glare.

"Hey! It does work you know! And you waking up the next day in a river was not my fault!"

The glare intensified.

"Ok, maybe a little-"

Uchiha Death Glare #7, "You are lying and you know it, so tell the damn truth." came into play.

"Ok, so it was my fault."

The Death Glare disappeared and was replaced by an Uchiha Smirk.

"But you drank before! Why are you mad from this?"

Uchiha Glare #23: Don't stick your nose in where it doesn't belong came into action.

**(I actually have a document with the list of all these Uchiha Death Glares.)**

"Fine, fine." Kisame muttered. "Be that way."

* * *

Red Dawn and Phoenix Reborn have both earned 10 points.

* * *

**This chapter is now finished. There will probably be no update until the testing is over.**

**On a completely random note, I want to eat a pretzel right now.**


	8. Flashback

**Somehow, despite my writer's block _and_ the fact that I majorly failed my math test...(anyone else having problems with math?) I managed to type this all out...**

**So, you'd better read it.**

**...**

**Please?**

* * *

"Lucy!"

On the outside, Lucy smiled and waved at Naruto.

On the inside, she was groaning and thunking her head down on the table.

"What is it?"

"You know, we never really got around to asking you, but why do you hate Fairy Tail?"

Lucy frowned. "I don't hate Fairy Tail in general, it's mainly Natsu. And Lisanna."

"Why?"

"They betrayed me..."

"...Not getting it."

"It's like if Sasuke ended up marrying Sakura even if Sakura loved you."

"EH! I'm going to kill that-"

"Just metaphorically speaking, Naruto. That might not happen." _Although there's a pretty darn good chance..._

"But...you guys did seem like good friends and all."

"Well, it was complicated..."

* * *

It was chaos.

Fairy Tail was pure chaos as the guild members had Drinking Party #17 to celebrate the return of Lisanna.

Lucy watched the chaos continue as she quietly sat on a ledge, well up away from the noise, and drank her hot chocolate.

Really, it was great that Lisanna was back, but really? 17 parties? Wasn't that a little over doing it?

She sighed.

_I guess it's normal for them...it's been nervewracking, hearing all the stories about Lisanna's time with Natsu and all..._

She quickly shook herself.

_NO! Now's not the time for that_...

But as she stared down and watched them all laugh, she couldn't help up feel left out. As if this was a private event, as if it was one of those "Hi, I'm a friend of so-and-so and she brought me along for the ride" things. It was...awkward, to say in the least.

Normally, she would have Wendy or Juvia or Levi to talk to, but...

Levi was drinking with Jet and Droy,

Juvia was occupied with watching "Gray-sama" strip...

And Wendy seemed to have caught the attention of Lisanna, who proclaimed her "adorable" and was bombarding the (poor) girl with questions, and answering those questions with no prompts as all.

Finished her hot chocolate, Lucy placed the cup to her side until Natsu crashed into the wall below her and the cup clonked onto Gray's head.

Gray, seeing Natsu near the cup (sort of) immediately came to the (rather stupid) conclusion that Natsu threw the cup.

And that started off the giant bar fight.

So, now it was lucky, really, that she found the shelf in the first place.

* * *

"Thank you for helping clean up the guild, Lucy." Mirajane gave Lucy a smile as she swept up the broken glass.

"Ah, it's no-"

"Mira-nee!" Lisanna bounded over.

"Yes?"

Lucy sighed. Forgotten again.

"Guess what!"

"What?"

"Natsu-kun's going to pair up with me for the annual Partner Dash!"

Lucy dropped her broom. The loud noise startled the two girls, who quickly turned to Lucy.

"Ah! Lucy-san! Are you alright?" asked Lisanna.

"Yeah, I'm-"

"Either way, Mira-nee, Natsu-kun and I are going to win this year!"

"Well, good luck, Lisanna!" Mirajane happily waved off Lisanna, and then turned to Lucy.

Or, rather, where Lucy should be.

"...Lucy?"

* * *

Despite everything, Lucy still found herself curled up on the corner of her bed, floating somewhere in that state where you can't decided whether to break down crying or punch the wall in frustration.

She tried to tell herself that everyone obviously missed Lisanna, and that this was perfectly normal...right?

Right...this was perfectly normal...

But somehow, it just didn't seem like it.

* * *

"Lucy, are you sure you're taking this mission? It'll keep you away for at least 2 weeks." Mirajane looked worried.

Lucy gave a smile which she hoped looked genuine. "It'll be fine, Mirajane-san."

"But you'll miss the Partner Dash..."

"It's alright. Someone has to make money for the victory celebration, r-right?" asked Lucy, her voice cracking at the end.

Mirajane immediately perked up. "You're right! And someone has to make the dessert, too! Lisanna! What would you like!"

_Ignored again..._

Lucy picked up her suitcase and walked out the door.

"I'm off..."

No one answered.

* * *

"I am so very sorry. I'm new to this region, so I didn't know that Fairy Tail had a partner dash..." the client really did look apologetic.

"Ah, it's alright, Kotori-san. I was planning to take part anyways." Lucy gave a (hopefully) convincing smile.

"...Are you sure?"

"Oh yes. Sure. Very sure. Why would I doubt my decision?"

Kotori Kagami frowned. This Lucy person wasn't telling the truth...after all, she wasn't a former psychologist for nothing.

"Very well then...if you need to ask me anything, I'll be in the garden."

* * *

Lucy smiled as she placed another book on the right shelf. The library was huge. When she arrived at the rather large house, she wasn't expecting _this_ big of one, but then again, not many people only lived in a tenth of their house while the rest was all books.

A title caught her eye.

"Elemental Countries...? Um...let's see...Eh? Konoha, Suna, Kiri, Kumo, Iwa...? Shinobi? Jutsu?"

* * *

Kagami took a long sip of her tea.

"Found it, haven't you? Shokan~."

She raised a finger and touched the ornate ink drawing.

"It's about time."

* * *

"What...what is this?!"

* * *

Another sip.

"Now, Miss Shokan...let's take a trip to see your dear mother, shall we?"

* * *

"Okaa...san...?"

Even though she was 10 years younger, Lucy had no trouble recognizing her mother.

Her mother had a terrified look on her face, and Lucy didn't blame her.

Everything was in flames. Masked men in strange animal masks were leaping everyone, killing men, women, and children alike, then setting houses on fire.

If you stayed inside, you burned to death.

If you ran outside, you were stabbed and killed...

...that is, if you were lucky. If you weren't, well, you just bled to death.

* * *

Somehow, through some random trick of fate, Layla managed to escape most of it. She has dived into a bush halfway, and was now testing the limits of how long she could stay still, which, if you didn't know already, involved not breathing.

Two of the masked men (which village were they from, anyways?) paused to talk. One seemed to have an earpiece.

"Hai, Danzou-sama...we are almost done..."

Despite everything, Layla let out a silent choke...which wasn't exactly silent, so the ROOT caught onto it.

"My apologies, Danzou-sama...we seem to have caught a bug."

Layla paled.

_OH NO. I AM NOT DYING HERE._

She grabbed a rock and threw it blindly.

Uzumaki luck must have been with her, because she hit it exactly in a old wound that ROOT agent had that never really healed. The agent let out a curse of pain, and Layla ran.

Until she stepped onto a seal and froze.

Another ROOT agent stepped out.

"You really think we would let anyone escape?"

"No...No...NO..._I AM NOT DYING HERE!_"

The seal exploded. It was expected. In reality, it wasn't a trapping seal, but a transport seal meant to transmit the poison that kept the victims frozen in place. A transport seal, was, in the end, a glorified summoning seal. Layle had the blood of people who were born to summon, and with that power came the ability to override any summon.

(Of course, that also gave them the ability to override the overriding of a summon, but that would be too complicated if all the details were said.)

Unfortunately, her chakra warped, possibly due to the poison, and instead of overriding the seal, she warped into another type of summoning seal - a one way, transdimensional seal.

The remaining ROOT agents stared.

"...Yes? Ah, Danzou-sama. It seems our little butterfly escaped the spider's web after all...my apologi-yes? ...Are you sure, sir? Well, if you order it, we shall carry it out." The ROOT agent turned to the others.

"The butterfly has escaped for now. We are to catch and pin the rest. Move!"

* * *

Lucy collapsed.

The library door opened.

"My, my...you couldn't take it after all, could you?"

* * *

"You're awake now."

"My mother..."

"She was from here."

A map was shoved in Lucy's face, a finger point to a forest between Suna and Konoha.

"This...is where...my mother...was from?"

"Yes."

Lucy spun around. "Kotori-san, what is thi-"

"This is your true heritage, Lucy. In the end, Layla's blood was dominant after all..."

"But how-"

"Your mother was prepared, Lucy."

A stack of books were hefted on the table, along with a box.

"Study these. Your work here is done. Leave, now." Kotori Kagami walked off.

"...Eh? But-"

Kagami turned around again. "You didn't know? You've been unconscious for about...12 days and 14 hours, I believe. Now, shoo. Your friends will be missing you."

"Ah...okay..."

* * *

"I'm back."

Lucy stopped and stared.

_They're...kissing..._

Natsu looked at her.

_That...stupid...idiot..._

SLAM.

"Oi! Lucy! Lucy, wait up!"

_HIM. HOW DARE HE JUST_.

"Lucy, what's wro-"

_I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!_

SLAP.

"Don't touch me!"

* * *

"Lucy! What are you-"

Erza stopped short at seeing Lucy's face.

"...Lucy?"

"**Goodbye.**"

"Lucy! What are you-Lucy? Lucy? Lucy, where are you?!"

* * *

"That's how I got here."

"Did you say...ROOT? Or was it just root?"

"Huh? Yeah, they said the first way. What about it."

"ROOT...it's the dark side of Konoha. It's the hidden part of the tree, the roots, so to speak. They're evil."

Naruto pointed to Sai, who was smiling and arguing with Sasuke about whether his Chidori Nagashi was supposed to compensate for something or not.

"That bastard Danzou...turned Sai into what he was. An emotionless tool. Forced to kill his own brother..."

"I see..."

"One day...I'm going to be Hokage...and then I'll break up ROOT. For sure this time. That bastard won't be able to revive it. He won't have the ROOT anymore. I'll be the roots of the tree of Konoha, because the roots are the most important part of the tree. I'll hold Konoha up."

**(I know that last part was weird...but really, I couldn't find another way... -A-)**

* * *

**Flashback chapter done...sorry for not updating...my math grade for this year is screwed...**

***depression***

**For the next chapter, I'm going to get Nachi and Owl to think of ideas. My brain is dead. Squares are the only good shapes in the world...anything curved is evil...anything that doesn't have all right angles is evil too...**

**Goodbye...see you in the summer...where I have more time...sort of...NOT.**

**Nachi**

**Owl**

**Byaku~**


End file.
